A teacher wearing a protective mask checks the temperature of a student outside PS 15 Roberto Clemente School in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2020. Elementary school students in New York City went back into classrooms with masks and temperature checks as the nation’s largest school district tries to safely open schools amid the coronavirus pandemic.
More than one million COVID-19 tests have been performed at New York City schools, the NYC Test & Trace Corps announced on Wednesday.
“New York City has shown the way in the fight against COVID-19, and our massive school-based testing effort is a major reason how we’ve been able to keep our schools safe and become a model for jurisdictions around the country,” said Dr. Ted Long, Executive Director of the NYC Test &Trace Corps. “With one million tests and remarkably low levels of transmission, we are ensuring the safety of our school buildings for staff and students so we can offer one of the most important parts of social development and educational opportunity – in person learning.”
NYC schools have been among the best places when it comes to COVID infections, as even during a months-long surge from Thanksgiving to February rates in schools stayed lower than citywide and statewide metrics showed.
Contact tracing has been pivotal in keeping the schools open, after the New York City public school district became the largest in the country to return with some in-person learning back in the fall. The testing regiment for the city's public schools is the largest and most comprehensive in the U.S., according to NYC Health + Hospitals. Under current testing protocols, a randomly selected portion of staff and students at every school is tested each week.
The seven-day rolling average for citywide survey testing positivity currently stands at under a third of a percent, NYC health + Hospitals said.
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