NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — New York City public schools will return Monday with in-person classes, extra COVID-19 testing and new guidance on quarantine protocol as Mayor Eric Adams deliberates a potential booster mandate for city teachers.
Starting this week, New York City will double the amount of weekly testing done and test both vaccinated and unvaccinated students, as well as teachers and staff.
Quarantine rules will also change beginning Monday. Rather than switching an entire classroom to online learning when one or more students test positive, students or staff who are exposed will now be given two rapid at-home tests.
Students can continue to go to school if they test negative and are asymptomatic.
Every child will then be given a second at-home test five days after an initial exposure.
Students who test positive during either test must isolate for 10 days.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who joined then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and then-Mayor-elect Adams during the Dec. 28 announcement, said school districts would benefit from 2 million at-home rapid tests as the omicron variant continues to put more children in hospitals.
"This new variant is affecting children more than the past variants," Hochul said. "Before we always said, 'Don’t worry so much, it’s not really affecting children.' That was a different variant. It is affecting children more, but the ones who are getting severely sick, so far, are the unvaccinated children."
On Sunday, Adams said it is vital to protect children and educate them with limited interruption.
"Fear not sending them back. The safest place for children is inside the school," he said on ABC's "This Week," "The numbers [of] transmissions are low, your children [are] in a safe space to learn and continue to thrive. We lost almost two years of education ... we can't do it again."
Adams also said his administration will study the numbers and see if it will require city workers, including teachers, to get a booster shot.
"It's going to prevent you from dying," the mayor added.
Related
