New York State will not provide guidance for reopening schools next month.
State Health Department Health Commissioner Howard Zucker issued a statement Thursday saying, “With the end of the state disaster emergency on June 25, 2021, school districts are reestablished as the controlling entity for schools. Schools and school districts should develop plans to open in-person in the fall as safely as possible, and I recommend following guidance from the CDC and local health departments.”
During the pandemic last year, each school district in New York was required to submit a reopening plan to the state government for approval.
CDC guidelines currently call for masking and physical distancing as spread prevention strategies, adding that “if school administrators decide to remove any of the prevention strategies for their school based on local conditions, they should remove them one at a time and monitor closely (with adequate testing through the school and/or community) for any increases in COVID-19 cases.”
In his briefing on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo encouraged local school districts statewide to do the same with a vaccine mandate, “I believe school districts should say today, teachers must get vaccinated or tested weekly, if you are in a CDC high-risk area, the red or the yellow zones.”
The governor said school districts should delay in setting vaccine policies, because teachers will need time to get one or two shots before school starts in a month, “I think school districts should say ‘vaccinate or test. Schools open in one month and if you don’t set a policy today, you’re going to have chaos in one month.”
Following his announcement, officials from the New York State United Teachers union said they support encouraging more vaccinations, but not a vaccine mandate.
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There were 8 new cases of COVID-19 reported for Wednesday, August 4th in Chautauqua County.
According to the most recent numbers from the county’s COVID-19 dashboard, there were 39 active cases as of Wednesday and 2 hospitalizations.
The 7-day average positivity rate is 2.8-percent with a CDC level of community transmission considered moderate.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been over 93-hundred confirmed cases in the county, with 91-hundred being listed as recovered. 158 people have died of COVID-19 in Chautauqua County.
According to the New York State Vaccination Tracker, 50-percent of the county’s total population have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 64-thousand-213 residents have one dose while 59 thousand-288 are considered completely vaccinated.
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