Dr Anthony Fauci Says It May Take Many more Vaccine Directive To End Covid 19 Pandemic

“We’ve been working for 18 months to get ready for this day,” New York Education Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter told CNN in an interview Friday.

As for safety concerns, all students and teachers returning to school on Monday will be required to wear masks and the city previously announced a vaccine mandate for all public school employees with no testing opt out.

Last week, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio announced 72% of teachers are vaccinated and 65% of students 12-17 years old have had at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

On Friday, the United Federation of Teachers said in a statement, that an independent arbitrator decided teachers who have documented or religious exemptions must be offered a non-classroom assignment.

In some parts of the country, a return to campus has coincided with a surge in pediatric cases.

At Texas Children’s Hospital, Versalovic said, “We continue to be on a high plateau. The reality is we may be headed to another peak — or another valley if we all pull together.”

Gottlieb said even though Covid-19 case rates may be declining in some older age groups, “the one age category where it’s continuing to increase is in school-aged children.”

Putting students in “pods” in schools and routine asymptomatic testing can help reduce transmission, Gottlieb said.

“Rather than quarantine that whole classroom, you just test them in a serial fashion to make sure that you didn’t have an exposure that led to a downstream case and so you can actually use testing to prevent quarantines.” Gottlieb said during an Axios event Friday.