New York: Schools to reopen with a weekly testing plan amid the COVID-19 pandemic

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on November 29 announced the reopening of public schools for in-person learning from December 7 onwards. Blasio took to his official Twitter account as he said that reopening the school buildings is ‘paramount’ to recovering from the novel coronavirus. He mentioned that the 3-K, Pre-K and grades K-5 will open from December 7 onwards and the District 75 schools at all grade levels will open from December 10.

New York to reopen schools 

However, keeping all the safety measures in consideration, weekly COVID-19 tests will be performed. Also, testing consent forms will be made mandatory. He also wrote, “Finally, as we reopen, wherever possible we will move to 5 day a week in-person learning. We want our kids in the classroom for as much time as possible. Our families do, too. We’ll work to make it happen”. According to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University, New York has a total of 679,111 cases with 34,514 fatalities.

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During mid November, New York City shut the schools in order to prevent the ‘renewed spread of the coronavirus’. Making the announcement, Blasio said that the  nation's largest public school system will halt in-person learning as more than 1 million children will be attending online classes. As per the reports by AP, Blasio said that increased testing would be a main component of the return plan. He said, “We're going to fight this back. This is a setback, but it's a setback we will overcome”. 

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The city had earlier announced that schools will be shut if 3 per cent of the tests performed over a period of 7 days come out to be positive. Initially, in March, the school system of New York halted in-person learning. However, for pre-kindergarteners and some special education students it resumed on September 21. Elementary schools opened on September 29 and high schools on October 1. Also, keeping in mind the safety of students, the in-person learning was only part-time.

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(Image Credits: AP/Unsplash)