All New York schools – public, private and collegiate – will stay closed through the rest of the academic year due to the novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

The order applies to 4.2 million students statewide. It continues a shutdown that had been scheduled to expire May 15. The governor explained it is simply too risky to reopen schools at a time when the virus is still sending nearly 1,000 people into the hospital every single day – although the situation is improving with the death toll from the virus reduced to less than 300 every day.

All the courses will be carried online for the rest of the academic year. And a determination on summer school programming will be made at the end of May.

So far, New York state has reported 308,314 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and have 18,610 died.