“Our main priority is creating a safe environment for our staff and students,” said one Brooklyn teacher. “It is extremely necessary that the city increases their testing resources and provides schools with universal weekly and baseline COVID tests.”
COVID-19 test kit distribution at a New York City-run site on the Lower East Side on December 23, 2021COVID-19 test kit distribution at a New York City-run site on the Lower East Side on December 23, 2021New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the state is expecting to receive millions of additional COVID-19 tests by the end of this week, and will make most of them available to school districts, including one million kits—each with two tests—for New York City’s schools.
“Our testing system that we have is now broken,” he said. “I'm working with the Adams administration. We'll work through this entire break. But if we don't see we're getting the testing system we know we need to keep our schools and communities and children remain safe then we're going to have to take a different position on this whole schools have to remain open.”
But experts who spoke to WNYC/Gothamist said it is essential that the city take a more proactive approach to testing, including prioritizing access to tests for students and staff before school reopens. Ideally, Nash said, that would mean supplying all staff and students with rapid at-home tests before schools reopen, as Boston is doing, although he notes that at-home test results can be skewed by user error.
Now that omicron is causing more breakthrough cases, Nash said it’s essential that schools test vaccinated students and staff as well. “Exclusion of vaccinated people just became an even bigger blind spot,” he said. He also believes that students and staff should not have to proactively consent in order to be tested, adding that testing 10% of school communities is fine, as long as it’s “a representative sample of everyone going through the doors on a given day.
An administrator in north Brooklyn, who asked to be anonymous because of concerns about job security, agreed that the education department should relax its limits around who can be tested when. Currently, he said the DOE's guidance allows up to 10% of school staff to be tested , and that's only if there are tests available after students are tested.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NYC Subways To Launch Pop-Up COVID Testing SitesNew York will begin offering COVID-19 testing at the Times Square subway station and Grand Central Terminal in response to the spike in demand for tests as omicron spreads rapidly across the city and state, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.
Read more »
Apple bans shoppers from all NYC stores as COVID cases soarApple has temporarily closed all of its New York City stores to in-person shoppers as coronavirus cases soar in the Big Apple. Apple’s massive Fifth Avenue flagship — as well as its Grand Cen…
Read more »
Pediatric COVID Hospitalizations Quadruple In NYCUnvaccinated children make up the majority of pediatric COVID patients admitted in the last week amid concerns about school safety and testing protocols.
Read more »
Rising COVID-19 cases cause Apple to shut down all of its NYC storesInsider tells the global tech, finance, markets, media, healthcare, and strategy stories you want to know.
Read more »
NYC restaurateurs have mixed reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandateAs New York imposed a law ordering businesses to require employee vaccinations, the response from Big Apple restaurateurs was as diverse as the city’s cuisine.
Read more »
Apple makes all NYC stores pickup only as Covid-19 cases riseApple has closed all of its New York City store locations to in-person shoppers due to Covid-19, a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. The stores are still open for customers to buy a product online and pick it up at the store.
Read more »