N.Y.C. urged to hold weekly COVID testing at schools with students under 12
New York City should conduct weekly COVID tests for students at all schools with kids under age 12, the United Federation of Teachers said on Sunday.
The proposal would mark a significant boost compared with the status quo, under which the city is testing at all its schools every two weeks. The random tests cover 10% of the student body per school.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew pointed to the widespread closure of classrooms since the start of the school year as grounds for boosting the testing regimen.
“We have to do everything in our power to make sure that we’re keeping our children safe, especially now, since we have much higher attendance than we did last year,” he told the Daily News.
The UFT is focusing on testing for kids under age 12 since they are not yet eligible for a COVID vaccine.
As of Friday, the Education Department had closed 367 individual classrooms and “partially” closed 266 others. On Monday, P.S. 79 in East Harlem will be the first school in the city to completely close due to COVID cases. Students there will attend class remotely.
The UFT had been pressing the city to implement weekly testing through the summer, according to Mulgrew.
“Last week we successfully and safely opened our schools to all New York City students for the first time in 18 months,” DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson said in an email. “We will continue to base our health and safety protocols off the guidance of our medical experts and in the best interest of our school communities.”
The UFT is part of a lawsuit against the city over its mandate for all teachers to get vaccinated against COVID. The requirement ignores medical reasons that employees may have for not getting jabbed, municipal unions are arguing in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The call for weekly student testing has nothing to do with the suit, Mulgrew said.
“We’ve come a long way, we’ve kept a lot of people safe, but this is another challenge and I really think the city should go to weekly testing for all students under the age of 12,” he said.
