The government of U.S insisted that face-to-face classes should be resumed in schools after the Christmas holidays, despite the multiplication of cases of omicron and the resistance of the teachers in Chicago.
The coordinator of the White House response team to the pandemic, Jeff Zients, said that US President Joe Biden “could not be clearer” about which schools in the country should remain open.
In that sense, he recalled that the federal Administration has allocated US $ 130,000 million within the stimulus plan to funds for schools to apply prevention measures. COVID-19, such as ventilation and social distance, as well as US $ 10 billion for tests for the disease in schools.
“Last March, we put teachers and school staff in front of the line for adults to get vaccinated. Most of the teachers are immunized and can now access the booster doses ”, said the official.
Zients reiterated that children ages five and older can receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
“We have the tools”
“We have the tools, we know how to keep children safe at school, about 96% of schools are open, parents want them to be open and experts are clear that face-to-face education is the best for both physical children as mentally ”, he stressed.
Zients made this plea in favor of face-to-face education after classes were suspended this Wednesday in Chicago (Illinois) following the decision of the city’s teachers union to return to teaching “online” due to the increase in cases.
On Tuesday, nearly 88% of delegates to the Chicago Teachers Union and 70% of its members voted to return to distance education.
“This decision has been made with great regret and exclusively for the safety of students and the community,” the union explained in a statement, where it also accused the mayor of Chicago, Democrat Lori Lightfoot, of failing to adopt “security guarantees. ”.
In this sense, the teachers remarked that it is their desire to return to the classroom, but “unfortunately the mayor and her management team in the Chicago public schools have endangered the safety and vitality of students and educators.”
Despite the fact that the United States is registering record numbers of COVID-19, with more than a million new cases boosted by the omicron variant on Monday alone, most school districts have resumed face-to-face classes after the Christmas holidays.
According to data from The Washington Post, most schools in the United States returned to face-to-face education on Monday or intend to do so throughout this week, although there are exceptions in Cleveland (Ohio), Atlanta (Georgia) or Newark (New Jersey).
New York resumed face-to-face classes
The largest school district in the United States, New York City, resumed classes at the school on Monday, with a visit from Mayor Eric Adams to an elementary school in the Bronx.
Infections have skyrocketed in the country with the expansion of omicron, which now accounts for 95% of cases in the United States.
According to data provided this Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English), the average number of COVID-19 cases per day in the last week has been 491,700 infections, an increase of 98% compared to the week previous.
Regarding hospital admissions, the average of the last seven days was 14,800 per day, which represents an increase of 63% compared to the previous week, while there was an average of 1,200 deaths per day (an increase of 5%) .
The main epidemiologist of the White House, Anthony Fauci, affirmed this Wednesday at the press conference of the Government’s response team to the pandemic that it is “inevitable” that more children end up in the hospital due to the increase in cases.
“It appears that omicron causes less serious disease but the acute volume of infections due to its deep contagiousness means that more children will become infected,” Fauci said.
The US president’s medical adviser, Joe Biden, stressed that minors with “other underlying diseases” are possibly the ones who end up in hospital. “This is inevitable,” he said.
Immunized adults to protect the little ones
In that sense, he stressed that the best way to prevent children who are not vaccinated due to their age from getting infected is for people around them to be immunized.
“When they are outside, if they are old enough to tolerate a face mask, put a mask on them, especially in places where people congregate,” said the expert.
In the United States, the authorities have authorized the vaccination of minors between the ages of 5 and 17.
In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended that the booster dose of Pfizer’s vaccine be given to children who are immunosuppressed.
This Wednesday, a CDC scientific committee is evaluating whether to advise that all children between the ages of 12 and 15 receive the booster dose after the FDA gave the green light on Monday.
Regarding the possible vaccination of those under five years of age, Fauci pointed out that the authorities probably have data on the immunization of this age group in the first half of 2022.
“Hopefully, towards the first half (of the year) we may have some information to be able to vaccinate children of those ages,” he predicted.
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