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No mention of NYC school closure rift from Cuomo at Easter press event

FILE PHOTO: New York governor Andrew Cuomo speaks as the USNS Comfort pulls into a berth in Manhattan during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City
FILE PHOTO: New York governor Andrew Cuomo speaks as the USNS Comfort pulls into a berth in Manhattan during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t talk about the New York City school closure kerfuffle with Mayor Bill de Blasio during an Easter Sunday morning press event. 

Cuomo appeared at the Pathways Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in upstate Niskayuna on April 12 and provided words of thanks to the staff and administration there for lending 35 ventilators to downstate hospitals amid the coronavirus outbreak. The governor subsequently returned them Sunday, having no need for them at this point of the crisis.

The press event, livestreamed on the governor’s website, ran for less than 15 minutes. The governor stayed on topic and took no questions at the podium.

Following his remarks, he waved to seniors inside the center and took a group photo with hospital staff. Then the livestream cut to black.

A spokesperson for the Governor’s office, however, indicated that he will hold a daily briefing on the coronavirus pandemic at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

Cuomo provided high praise for the nursing center’s generosity and care for its seniors — the population most susceptible to coronavirus complications.

“For them to come forward and lend them in case our neighbors downstate need them, what an incredibly beautiful, generous gesture,” the governor said.

Initially, the Niskayuna senior center had difficulty making arrangements with the Governor’s office to make the donation, the Albany Times-Union reported.

But during his broadcast, Cuomo did not speak about the beef with de Blasio over the mayor’s Saturday announcement that he would keep New York City public schools closed for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

Shortly after de Blasio made the announcement Saturday, Cuomo stunned the city at his press conference by calling the mayor’s declaration merely his “opinion.” The governor insisted that he had the authority to open and close schools, and that school reopenings should be coordinated with Long Island and Westchester County schools.

De Blasio, during an MSNBC appearance on Saturday afternoon, reasserted that he held the authority to keep schools closed under the state law granting control of the New York City public school system to the mayor.

Cuomo’s press event took place at 9 a.m. Sunday, about a half-hour before de Blasio held his daily coronavirus briefing at City Hall. Even the scheduling appeared awkward.

The Mayor’s office sent out a press release at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night announcing de Blasio’s Easter Sunday schedule, which included the scheduled 9:30 a.m. press briefing. Thirty-three minutes after the mayor’s schedule was sent out, the Governor’s office announced Cuomo’s 9 a.m. appearance in Niskayuna.

This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. on April 12.