What you should know
- All New York City public schools with vaccination-eligible students ages 12 and older will have vaccination centers when they fully reopen Monday for in-person learning, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.
- Officials aim to make vaccines as convenient as possible, as cities and states face increasing pressure to protect unvaccinated youth and others from the constant threat posed by the delta variant.
- Thursday’s announcement marks an expansion of New York City schools’ COVID policies by Blasio, especially when it comes to access to vaccinations, but falls short of the new plan unveiled in Los Angeles, which calls for vaccination for eligible students.
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NEW YORK – All New York City public schools with vaccination-eligible students ages 12 and older will have vaccination centers when they fully reopen Monday for in-person learning, Mayor Bill announced Thursday de Blasio.
That equates to more than 700 school buildings in the five boroughs next week. The same process will apply two weeks later, when students 12 and older are eligible for their second injections. Officials aim to make vaccines as convenient as possible, as cities and states face increasing pressure to protect unvaccinated youth and others from the constant threat posed by the delta variant.
De Blasio has already required at least one dose of vaccine for each New York City Department of Education (DOE) staff member by Sept. 27. Authorities say that at least 72% of DOE staff meet that standard at this time. The mayor said that all child care workers at city-contracted sites must be partially vaccinated by the same date.
To date, 65% of youth ages 12 to 17 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, de Blasio said Wednesday. He says that’s “higher” than the national average, but still much lower than the numbers he and many others would like to see.
Thursday’s announcement marks an expansion of New York City schools’ COVID policies by Blasio, especially when it comes to access to vaccinations, but falls short of the new plan unveiled in Los Angeles, which calls for vaccination for eligible students.
Among other precautions, the city’s DOE has released a list of new and revised COVID-19 policies that consider both vaccination and variant delta factors in an effort to prioritize safety and minimize disruptions to in-person learning.
Masks will be required in New York schools across the state by order of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has also ordered a weekly vaccine or testing mandate for state educators and has said she is working to implement a policy more akin to that of New York City.
Both she and de Blasio say New York has long focused its vaccination efforts on the most vulnerable. They now specifically target eligible youth, especially given recent CDC research on hospitalization rates among unvaccinated children.
Hoboken will require weekly vaccination or negative test for students Pre-K through 12.
Hochul said a day ago that if serious delta-related case counts continue to rise across the state and threaten to jeopardize the viability of in-person education, he might consider requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for eligible children. as the state requires vaccinations for measles, mumps, polio, chicken pox, and other diseases.
Daily positivity rates have more or less stabilized since the last delta-driven increase in cases in most New York regions, although significant declines have yet to occur on a sustainable basis. Hospitalization increases also appear to have stalled, although total admissions statewide is still around early May levels.
Hochul called those numbers “worrying” on Wednesday, but said: “If we can prevent them from going up, we will be fine.” If the situation drastically changes, which the governor said she can do “overnight,” she reserves the right to consider more dramatic measures to preserve hospital capacity throughout the state.
Nationally, some states are struggling much harder, especially where vaccination rates are low. More than 95% of all counties in the US are considered “high transmission rate” areas by the CDC. Florida is in the grip of the deadliest wave of the pandemic yet, while Idaho has begun rationing its healthcare amid its ongoing COVID surge.
President Joe Biden has planned a major COVID address for Thursday in which he is expected to outline a six-front federal effort to push vaccines and curb the rising delta variant that is still killing thousands of Americans every week.
The measure comes days before classes start.
It is expected to detail plans to increase virus testing in schools in an effort to keep them open safely, as well as announce a new vaccine requirement for all federal executive branch workers, a source familiar with the news told NBC News. the plans.
The action will come in the form of an executive order and will also extend to contractors who work with the US government.
“We know that increased vaccines will stop the spread of the pandemic, control the pandemic and return people to normal life,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said before the president’s speech. “That is our goal. So we want to be specific about what we are trying to achieve.”
More than 208 million Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 177 million are fully vaccinated, but confirmed cases of the virus have skyrocketed in recent weeks to an average of around 140,000 per day with an average of about 1,000. Americans die every day from the virus, according to CDC data.
The vast majority of new serious cases occur among unvaccinated people.
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