School closures in Kiryas Joel have been extended indefinitely.
An Orange County spokesperson confirmed Orange
County Health Commissioner Dr. Irina Gelman extended schools closures
for the following reasons:
- School testing data was not reported to OCDOH,
as well as not reported to the NYS dashboard and is not online for the private
schools in Palm Tree (See: https://schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov/#/home)
- Many of those schools did not close in the first
place thus continuing to allow the virus to spread, we need to continue
the closure of all private schools in the “Red Zone”.
- When inspected/audited, the said schools were
out of compliance with the commissioner order
for masking and social distancing on schools.
Dr. Gelman says the public
school in Palm Tree is not subject to continued closure orders because they
closed as required.
Schools and local governments
are subject to fines up to $15,000 for non-compliance.