New York City public schools aren’t becoming COVID-19 hot spots.
Eighteen people have tested positive — 13 staff members and five students — out of 10,676 people in the city’s school districts who have received test results. The positivity rate currently stands at 0.0017%, with the school district waiting for the results of about 5,000 outstanding tests.
The city’s school district is the nation’s largest, educating over 1 million pupils. It opened for in-person schooling on Sept. 29, after students were moved to virtual learning. Students are currently using a mix of virtual and in-person learning.
According to other data from local school districts, 198 students have tested positive for the virus since Sept. 8. New rules in the city require at least 10% of students and the faculty to be tested once per month.
New York City teachers protested the decision to reopen schools for in-person learning. They carried caskets, guillotines, and signs claiming that they would die if schools did not remain remote.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published information supporting the reopening of schools.
”Closure disrupts the delivery of in-person instruction and critical services to children and families, which has negative individual and societal ramifications,” the agency said. “The best available evidence from countries that have opened schools indicates that COVID-19 poses low risks to school-aged children, at least in areas with low community transmission, and suggests that children are unlikely to be major drivers of the spread of the virus.”
Schools in Europe have prioritized in-person learning and have seen minor outbreaks in schools. In Belgium, 0.2% of its schools have closed due to COVID-19. Steven Van Gucht, a scientist at Belgium’s public health institute, said that in-person learning can help control the spread of the virus.
“The school environment, in our perception, is still quite a controlled environment,” he said. “We think it’s better to have schools open than to send kids home, have them meet on the street, and give them more opportunities to spread the virus.”
In Finland, nearly 3,000 students and staff were asked to quarantine after exposure to COVID-19. Otto Helve, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, said that less than 10 people were believed to have contracted the disease.
