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As schools across the country prepare to resume in-person learning after the holidays, the union that represents educators in New York City – the largest school district in the country – is warning city officials that schools do not have adequate testing available to reopen safely.
“Teachers are prepared to do their jobs starting January 3rd,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “The real issue is whether the city can do its job – ensuring that new testing initiatives are available in every school and an improved Situation Room is actually in place by next week.”
As of last week, union officials said 177 schools in the city hadn’t had access to testing for two weeks. Since then, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul directed 2 million rapid tests to city schools and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s and Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ teams have worked to reestablish the office created to track school infections in real time and provide guidance on quarantines and closures – the so-called “Situation Room.”
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“We are moving closer to a safe reopening of school next week,” Mulgrew said. “But we are not there yet.”
The shot across the bow from the 200,000-member union comes as coronavirus cases among children are “extremely high and increasing,” according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
The weekly number of coronavirus cases among children has increased 50% since the start of December, reaching nearly 200,000 pediatric cases reported last week, according to the report.
The spike is especially evident in New York, where state health officials said earlier this week that the number of hospitalized children with COVID-19 in New York City has nearly quadrupled this month. In the week starting Dec. 5, New York City hospitals admitted 22 children. But by the five-day period beginning Dec. 19, that figure rose to 109, according to New York State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett.
Public health officials say they expect coronavirus cases among children to increase after the holidays and into the winter months. And with pediatric vaccination rates dramatically slowing as omicron surges, many are concerned about what the near future will look like – especially for schools.
Complicating matters further, FDA officials now say the omicron variant, which is highly transmissible but so far is not causing severe infections in children, is more difficult to detect with rapid antigen tests, which is what the lion’s share of schools are using to track infections and outbreaks.
The Biden administration is continuing to pressure schools to remain open despite the swell of new infections. Earlier this month, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky endorsed test-to-stay policies and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urged school districts to use federal coronavirus aid to fend off teacher and staff shortages.
“Schools should be approaching Omicron with caution – but NOT fear,” Cardona tweeted Tuesday. “Just like we teach in the classroom, we can learn from past experiences, trust the science, and use tools like test-to-stay & vaccination to keep schools safe & open.”
Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder contributed to this report.