NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The union representing city school teachers is asking educators to use photos to document and report COVID-19 quarantine violations.
The United Federation of Teachers has launched an online portal to collect photos of infractions relating to new social distancing and quarantine guidelines, the mayor announced last week.
“If you encounter issues in your classroom related to the mayor's new quarantine guidelines for students, including cases where students are not able to maintain 3 feet of distance, please use this form to document them,” the UFT tweeted, along with a link to the portal.
Unvaccinated students who are masked and follow the three-feet rule do not have to quarantine if they are considered a close contact of a positive student, according to the new guidelines.
Since city schools reponed for in-person learning on Sept. 13, the city has recorded 2,221 positive cases among staff and students — 1,535 student cases and 686 staff cases, according to city data.
The spread of the virus in schools has led to 945 classroom closures and one full school shutdown, the data show.
The city is grappling with legal battles that have delayed its mandate requiring all Education Department teachers and staff to be vaccinated to keep their jobs. The mandate, which was slated to take effect Monday, will likely be delayed at least a few days as a judge decides its legality.
De Blasio on Monday remained confident that his mandate will be upheld and that it won’t lead to any sort of emergency staffing situations in schools.
As of Monday, 87 percent of all DOE employees have received at least one vaccine dose, with 90% of teachers and 97% of principals at least partially vaccinated, de Blasio said at a news conference.
“Let's get ready for this vaccine mandate to take full effect as soon as we get through this court process,” the mayor said. “But look at these numbers already – for everyone, especially for parents and kids, this should be a real sense of relief to see the numbers are already so high.”
The mayor also dismissed small, local protests against vaccine mandates as not representative of New Yorkers, noting that at least 82% of city adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
“I don't think there is a culture of opposition in the end,” when asked about a recent Staten Island anti-vaccine mandate rally. “I think there's some people opposed, but it has not manifested as some bigger reality.”
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