Schools will stay open through at least Wednesday, Nov. 18, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

With the city currently below a 3% positivity rate for coronavirus infections over the past seven days, it remains below the threshold Mayor de Blasio has set for shutting schools down and going fully remote. 

While the daily positivity rate was 3.2% on Tuesday, the seven-day rolling average was 2.74%. The positivity rate for those admitted to hospitals was 45.19%.

“This is one piece of a bigger puzzle that explains why New York City has managed so far to do so much better than the rest of the country because of the huge levels of participation of everyday New Yorkers,” de Blasio said regarding increased testing, ramped up contact tracing and more. 

While the city seems to be heading into a second phase of a coronavirus surge, it's also been ramping up the availability of testing. There are 240 new testing locations across the city, which include self-swab stations and a mobile fleet, according to Ted Long, the executive director of NYC's Test & Trace Corps.

The city is now able to conduct 60,000 tests per day and 300,000 per week, he said. To prepare for inclement weather, the city has repurposed former ambulances, which will be testing people through its windows.

The mayor also emphasized the importance of getting a flu shot this year, calling it the "most important flu shot of your life," since this flu season coincides with the onslaught of coronavirus cases. Thus far, at least 1.5 million New Yorkers have gotten the flu shot, which is up 33% from last year.

“All those little small acts add up," he went on to say referencing public health safety guidelines. "When you do each one of those acts times 8 million people, it has a huge impact."