NYC Mayor Eric Adams said parents should 'fear not sending' kids back into the classroom amid concerns of surging coronavirus cases

• NYC Mayor Eric Adams says parents should "fear not" sending their children back to school in person.
• "The safest space for children is inside of school," Adams said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that parents should "fear not" sending their children back to the classroom amid concerns due to the rise in COVID-19 cases.

During an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, host George Stephanopoulos asked Adams' message to parents who fear their kids returning to school this week.

"I say to them fear not sending them back. The stats are clear. The safest space for children is inside of school," Adams responded. "The number of transmissions is low. Your children are in a safe space to learn and continue to thrive."

"We lost almost two years of education," he added. "We're going to create a safe environment with testing. We are going to identify the children that are exposed, we're going to remove them from that environment."

NYC public school students are set to return to school on Monday and officials are ramping up testing efforts, CBS New York reported. Local officials plan to double weekly testing in each school to help curb the spread of the virus, according to a news release, as well as provide at-home testing kits.

New York, a hot spot for COVID-19, broke a new record after reporting more than 85,000 positive cases on December 31 due to the Omicron variant, according to the New York Times, and hospitalizations are surging among children. Data shows that about 43% of children in the city between 5-17 years old are fully vaccinated. Adams has been firm on his stance on keeping school doors open.

"My schools are going to be open, my children are going to be inside the schools, they're going to wear their masks, we're going to take precaution, we're going to extend and have additional testing that's going to take place, the safest place for our children is inside a school building," Adams said, WABC reported. "And it's going to take a lot for me to close my schools, we must deal with COVID in real time."