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Coronavirus In Philadelphia: Frustrations Boil Over From City Officials As They Want To Keep Schools Open

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Prior to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf saying all state schools will be closed to contain the coronavirus outbreak, frustrations boiled over from city officials after announcing all Philadelphia School District schools will be closed for the next two weeks, beginning Monday. Over 200,000 students attend Philadelphia's public schools and over 12,000 are part of the city's archdiocesan system, so this will deeply impact hundreds of thousands of local families.

All of the city's schools will remain closed through March 27. It wasn't a decision that city leaders wanted to announce. Philadelphia School District Superintendent Dr. William Hite said Friday they had no choice but to close for two weeks due to staffing issues caused by preventative procedures to contain the coronavirus in neighboring counties.

"This closure is now necessary as the neighboring counties where many of our district employees reside are asked to self-quarantine and cannot adequately staff schools," Hite said.

All Philadelphia schools will be deep-cleaned over the two-week period. No students or staff will be allowed back at the school until its cleaned.

Rep. Danilo Burgos shared a list of sites that will serve two grab-and-go meals to Philadelphia students during the closure. The sites will be open from 9 a.m. to noon each day.

Just yesterday, officials pledged their desire to keep Philly schools open. They cited not wanting to place undue stress on local families dealing with child care issues or perhaps food insecurity.

"Our kids were safer staying in school. They get breakfast, they get lunch, they get a safe place to be, they get homework, they get knowledge, they have after-school activities and sometimes after-school care. We didn't want to change all that. It wasn't a decision that we made, our kids are as important as the ones in Montgomery County or anywhere else," Mayor Jim Kenney said. "Whatever the perception is, the reality is we wanted to keep the schools open."

"Quite frankly, Montgomery County's decision, the governor's decision from all science available, I'm not quite sure why they made it. And so if you want to actually get to the brass tax about asking why did Philadelphia make our decision? We're making our decision we want to keep our schools open because we care about our kids. We know this is the best thing for our communities, we know it's the best thing for our neighborhoods. Question really is, why did Montgomery County decide to close? Why did the governor decide to close? And what are they going to do for their kids who are poor, those kids who depend upon their schools, their communities that depend on their schools?" Philadelphia Managing Director Brian Abernathy said.

Montgomery County is currently dealing with 18 coronavirus cases, while Delaware County has six cases.

Philadelphia students won't be returning until at least March 30.

Meanwhile, the archdiocese says the entire five-county Catholic school system will be closed.

Two more presumptive positive coronavirus cases were announced in Philadelphia on Friday, bringing the total to three in the city.

"All of the hospitals have put in place emergency operations plans to both address the current situation where they have a relatively small amount of people who may need evaluation and testing as well as planning for what might happen if there is real surge in patients in the near future," Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said.

Farley suggests that surge is likely to happen.

"We have 62 additional people who have been tested and those tests are pending," Farley said.

Farley also announced a new helpline for anyone in the greater Philadelphia area who may have questions about coronavirus.

That number is 800-722-7112. Farley says it will be staffed 24/7.

CBS3's Alexandria Hoff and Greg Argos contributed to this report.

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