U.S. schools are scheduled to open soon. The Covid-19 cases are surging across the country powered by the omicron variant. This makes it a tricky situation for the officials as to how to make the school opening safe.
Rapid testing is the only solution – lots and lots of rapid testing.
As the infection rises, many districts are planning to ramp up the Covid-19 rapid testing as the classes and schools are to be resumed by January.
As the number of cases breaks all records even among the vaccinated populations, the education authorities are worried that they need to devise a plan to let the schools remain open and save the employees from getting ill or ending up in quarantine.
As the vaccination rate has almost halted, aggressive rapid testing for Ccovid-19 seems to be the only solution to save a majority of the population from getting infected by the deadly virus.
Rapid testing will save people from getting infected, isolated and also prevent any kind of outbreak in the schools.
“You hear this all the time, ‘Oh my gosh, they have to shut the schools, there are all these cases,'” Daniel Griffin, chief of infectious diseases at Preheat Care in New York City and a professor of medicine at Columbia University.
“You can safely keep those schools open,” Griffin added. “Part of the strategy to avoid the quarantine is testing.”
New York City is devising a strategy of rapid testing that will “stem the tide of cases while also keeping as many children in class as possible.”
Chicago has also recommended parents administer rapid tests themselves on their children before returning to school.
Another suggestion is that the winter break might be extended to ensure all the rapid testing equipment are provided to the schools beforehand
California has also announced sending tens of millions of rapid antigen tests to families or schools.
Vermont has announced making 80000 free rapid tests available to the families to be conducted at home.
Connecticut also announced 1 million tests to be given to the community as well as 2 million to the schools in January.
“We are moving closer to a safe reopening of school next week,” Michael Mulgrew, Head of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City schools, said. “But we are not there yet.”
