New York Schools Are Now Allowed To Hold Outdoor Graduation Ceremonies
Here’s some good news for New York students: On Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that schools across the state will be allowed to hold commencement ceremonies outdoors beginning June 26.
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It was said that graduations will be limited to 150 people but it wasn’t made clear whether that included students as well as family and faculty. However, during the news conference, Cuomo said that ceremonies will be allowed at that time if the number of COVID-19 cases across the state continues to decline.
“It gives us a couple of weeks between now and then, God forbid, the number changes,” Cuomo said during his daily news briefing. “But schools need to plan. With the progress, we’ve made so far and if we continue this trajectory, we’ll be able to do that.”
As we previously reported, schools have been closed since mid-March due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Some have tried to hold virtual ceremonies or personally deliver diplomas. But other schools decided to hold off until they received better news on the pandemic.
This comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations and death toll numbers have gone down in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today the state has reached the lowest number of hospitalizations and deaths since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of total hospitalizations was down yesterday to 2,603 from a record-high of 18,825 during the peak of the pandemic, and just 35 people in New York passed away due to COVID-19, down from a record-high of 800 just eight weeks ago.
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