WASHINGTON (AA) – New York City schools will reopen Jan. 3 as part of a new policy, “Stay Safe, and Stay Open,” outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

“Our schools have been extraordinarily safe, bluntly, the safest places to be in New York City, very low levels of COVID,” de Blasio said at a news conference with Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who takes office Jan. 1.

He said schools need to be open for children’s physical health, mental health, nutrition needs and social development.

“And so we are moving every day to make sure our schools remain safe. We have been working very closely with the mayor-elect and his team to make sure everything is in place for January 3,” he said. “We’re going to double the amount of testing we do every day in our schools.”

“So right now, we do PCR testing in every school every week. We’re gonna double the amount of testing we do in schools,” he said.

Adams added: “Your children are safer in school. The numbers speak for themselves. And we are united to make sure that they will continue to be safe.”

Hochul said she sent 600,000 rapid tests to the city last week.