NEW YORK - Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a deal Friday to reopen schools in coronavirus hot spots.

The plan allows students and faculty who have tested negative for the virus to return to class in red and orange zones. 

"All the students, all the teachers will know that everybody was tested and they're all negative," Cuomo said. 

Southern Brooklyn is the only part of the city that remains on strict lockdown after the state eased restrictions in other areas of Brooklyn and Queens last week

Under the plan, all students and faculty will have to be tested before being allowed to return. Schools will then need to randomly test 25% of their population on a weekly basis. If more than nine positive tests come back in a smaller school, the building will have to shut down again, according to the Cuomo administration. In larger schools, a positivity rate of more than 2% will trigger a return to remote learning. 

The plan applies to public, private and religious schools. The city's Department of Education says 45 of its school sites are still closed as a result of the lockdown. 

The heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park erupted in protests when the restrictions were first implemented earlier this month. In some cases, yeshivas reportedly defied shutdown orders and remained open.

On Monday, more than 100 schools were allowed to reopen when the governor reclassified neighborhoods with improving coronavirus cases as yellow zones. In those areas, schools must conduct coronavirus tests for 20% of employees and students every week. 

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