The state Association of Counties is pushing back against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s weekend assertion that local governments must do more COVID-19 of school students in areas with increasing COVID-19 cases.

Cuomo’s comments over the weekend came after the governor on Friday warned communities where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly they can be fined if they fail to enforce compliance of the state’s COVID-19 guidelines. The state Department of Health will send a letter to those communities reminding them of their responsibilities. According to Beth Garvey, a special counsel and special adviser to Cuomo, communities could be fined up to $10,000 per day they are found “failing to protect public health” in New York. The state Health Department will request information from the communities seeking details on the steps they’ve taken to enforce social distancing guidelines, public mask compliance and capacity restrictions for businesses. The department, Garvey said, would charge the communities if their response is determined to be deficient.

“This has been a long running conversation.” Cuomo said. “The local government’s responsibility is to enforce the law. I don’t need them to do a public education campaign.”

Areas of concern include parts of Orange, Rockland and Nassau counties and parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

“Local governments have not done an effective job of enforcement in these hot spot ZIP codes,” Cuomo said Sunday. “The state will be doing aggressive enforcement starting tomorrow. As we saw with bars and restaurants, when the state initiated enforcement actions compliance greatly increased. However, the state cannot take over effective enforcement for every jurisdiction and if a local jurisdiction cannot or will not perform effective enforcement of violating entities, notify the state and we will close all business activity in the hot spots where the local governments cannot do compliance.”

The governor then extended his criticism to school testing.

“I’m concerned about the lack of testing in the schools. If the localities do not do testing immediately in the schools in those areas, the state will close them immediately,” Cuomo said. “We all want schools to reopen if they can reopen safely. I have assured the parents of this state that I would not send my child to a school that I didn’t know was safe. Without testing we can’t assure parents and teachers of the safety of that school.”

NYSAC officials responded by saying counties aren’t accepting blame for spikes in COVID-19 in schools when there has been inconsistent testing protocols or guidance coming from the state. Schools were required to submit reopening plans to the state Health Department and the state Education Department, not to counties and local governments.

“To suggest that localities begin testing students without state leadership, guidance or support is disingenuous,” NYSAC officials said in a news release Sunday. “It is the state of New York that has declared this public health emergency. They are in the position to provide clear and coordinate testing protocols. In addition, the state has received more than $5 billion in CARES Act funding. Unlike in most states, none of this has been allocated to New York’s counties, which have been charged with leading the local response to this pandemic. It is beyond the capacity of local governments to administer tests on behalf of schools. There needs to be more coordinated state testing guidance provided to our schools and local governments, and there needs to be funding allocated to those local governments so that they can effectively implement any such coordinated plan.”