Home » News » weekly tests and quarantine rules – Telemundo New York (47)

weekly tests and quarantine rules – Telemundo New York (47)

What you should know

  • New York City announced Monday that it will change two key school COVID policies around testing and quarantine starting in one week.
  • The two changes announced Monday involve testing and quarantine procedures and will go into effect simultaneously on September 27.
  • Starting today, schools will conduct random weekly tests on schools and the mayor also said the city will change its approach to school quarantine to align with the CDC.

NEW YORKNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced changes to some of the policies related to COVID-19 in public schools on Monday.

The new measures come a week after the nation’s largest public school district opened its doors to teach classes in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic. and a day after a Manhattan school was ordered to temporarily return to remote learning due to multiple employees testing positive for the disease.

The mayor noted that the adjustments follow an assessment by city officials of how the first week of classes is functioning in person for nearly one million students and how COVID-related policy could be improved in the future given the threat. current delta variant.

“The goal is always two crucial things: first, the health and safety of our children and our entire school community, second, maximize the number of children in school every day, avoid interruptions, give our children the opportunity to return, ”said de Blasio.

The two changes announced Monday involve testing and quarantine procedures and will go into effect simultaneously on September 27.

Starting today, schools will conduct random weekly testing, rather than biweekly testing, at all public elementary, middle and high schools in the city. A request made by the president of the teachers’ union in a letter addressed to the mayor on Sunday.

The mayor also said the city will change its school quarantine approach to align with the CDC. Under that guidance, when there is a positive case in only one classroom, unvaccinated students in that classroom will not have to self-quarantine by wearing masks and maintaining at least 3 feet of distance.

De Blasio said that approach will allow more children to remain safe in the classroom.

The new measures come after a back-to-school week that was largely successful for New York City schools. However, the school PS 79 in East Harlem entered temporary remote learning after more than a dozen COVID-19 cases linked to this institution were reported.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said of this case that “possible widespread exposure and transmission” led to the temporary closure and that the positive cases were from staff and related to preschool counseling. The school will be remote from Monday until at least September 28.

The president of the city’s largest teachers union also had sent a letter to de Blasio on Sunday to demand changes to the COVID policy in schools, including the change to weekly testing that the mayor announced in his COVID briefing on Monday.

The union noted that the current biweekly testing system is insufficient to adequately protect students and staff from the spread of the virus, and Mulgrew pointed to the situation at PS 79 as an example of their argument.

He also said the number of fully or partially closed classrooms would likely be even higher “if the city had a thorough and rigorous weekly testing protocol.”

Top elected and school officials in New York City and across the country have recognized the challenges of keeping classrooms open safely for all, though they say the benefits of in-person education are more than worth the improved effort.

Secondly, Pfizer announced Monday that its vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11 and plans to seek expanded federal approval of its regimen from regulators as soon as possible.. A measure that would change the landscape also in schools.

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