New York to limit classroom closures
The step shows health officials are increasing the focus on testing and trying to avoid long isolation periods. A day earlier, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shortened the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 to five days from the previous guidance of 10 days, reports Reuters.
President Joe Biden has pledged to ease a shortage of COVID-19 tests with the omicron variant threatening to overwhelm hospitals and stifle travel plans as it spreads across the country this holiday week.
New York’s new policy was described by Mayor Bill de Blasio as “Stay Safe, and Stay Open” and will take effect on Jan 3. About a million students who attend New York City’s public schools are scheduled to return from holiday break on Monday.
New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams, de Blasio and New York Governor Kathy Hochul made the announcements at a news conference https://bit.ly/3esuXts. New York City aims to detect more infections while mitigating disruptions as officials described remote learning as “a failed experiment.”
New York City’s previous policy was to quarantine unvaccinated close contacts of infected students for 10 days.
Instead of sending classes of unvaccinated students home to learn online when a student tests positive for COVID-19, the students will be given rapid at-home tests. If they are asymptomatic and test negative, they can return the day after their first negative test.
Students will then be given a second at-home test within seven days of their exposure, according to the announcement.
