Chalkbeat NY has a detailed account of the coronavirus situation as it impacts on the NYC schools.
From the article:
The city’s education department is taking an inventory of school trips as concern about the spread of the coronavirus grows, officials announced Thursday.
The global spread of the virus coincided with a week-long school vacation, Feb. 17-21, during which some students and school employees traveled out of the country. Tracking down those who were abroad could take some time, given the school system’s size.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said one teacher had tested negative for the virus after traveling to Italy as part of a school trip with James Madison High School in Brooklyn. More than 40 students took part in the trip, along with six other school staffers. None of the students from Madison have shown symptoms, the mayor said, and therefore have not been asked to stay home.
Two other teachers who traveled to Italy on vacation are awaiting the results of testing and are not currently in school. One educator returned to her classroom for several days after a trip before showing any symptoms. The mayor said the city would follow up with those schools if needed once the results are known.
It’s unclear how many school-organized trips to affected countries — which include China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and Iran — have taken place since the coronavirus outbreak. But James Madison is not alone. Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School also organized a trip to Italy during the February break, according to students and staff there, some of whom shared concerns that those on the trip were not asked to stay home.
“These kids came back and came into the general population,” said one Murrow staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“It seemed foolhardy,” the staffer added.
Symptoms of the coronavirus include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath.
Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for travelers returning to the U.S. has shifted since the students returned. The most recent guidance advises people returning from Italy to stay home for 14 days. Though the Murrow and Madison students returned fewer than 14 days ago, they are not being asked to stay home.
Japan shut its schools for a month to try to stop the spread of the virus. DOENUTS blog puts the odds as high as four in ten of the NYC schools being closed for at least a week.
Are the chances that great that schools will be closed as DOENUTS believes?
Markets have been freaking out. Stocks have had a miserable week based on coronavirus. Bond yields are breaking record lows.
The UFT is on top of this issue. Here is a link to the UFT website on the virus. If employees are sent home because of the virus, the days won't come out of the sick bank.
21 comments:
So what is the plan/policy regarding days lost and clawed back a la Sandy?
NJ just announced their "online learning" protocol.
NY--nothing.
Will we have to give back spring break and/or summer days if school is cancelled?
Depends how many days they would shut it down.
I'm sorry, but I'm with Trump on this one....This is too hyped! Unless you have underlying medical conditions this illness is nothing more than a bad URI. The media is making everyone hysterical over this. Go to work and school and take proper precautions...wash your hands regularly and don't touch your face. If you do get it, call in sick, go to a doctor, get it confirmed, return to work when feeling better and have the days restored to your CAR.
What's a URI?
Yes but a 3.5% mortality rate is scary.
Upper respiratory infection
There is no way in hell that NYC schools are gonna close over this. Keep dreaming though.
We have three unused snow days. Best to close the schools for those days, ventilate the damn place, do some real cleaning, and move on.
I personally wouldn't care if they closed more and made BQ day an instructional day if needed.
I resent people who say it’s no big deal because they don’t have an underlying condition. Many staff in my school have conditions or have loved ones who do. We have kids coming to school with obvious respiratory infections. Since the virus appears to affect children quite minimally, who knows how many are coming to school infected? Schools are on the frontline of a pandemic.
Anonymous 10:47- agreed. We also don't know if kids are carriers. I'm tired of hearing that "it's just like the flu", and other trite statements that blatantly mock those of us who have good reasons to be concerned.
How about canceling Parent Teacher night/day?
I will teach my students, but keep their parents at home.
Kids will starve if they don't eat at school.
Was gonna remind of 3 unused snow days
Cuomo: where was the emergency when Maria Fuertes, a grandmother of color from DR, was raped and murdered by someone you and Warner Wilhelm released from and to whom you gave "sanctuary"? Etc etc etc.
Oh yeah you created that garbage and so many of my uft colleagues supported it.
Nothing to see there.
518, this is what liberals wanted. You can be arrested for attempted murder and by out in hours. Thanks uft...keep standing up for the middle class.
UFT is a conservative union. Centrist at best.
This is "not' the common flu. It is a "novel" (novel=new) virus, meaning we don't know much about this virus at all but we do know it can turn deadly very quickly. What we do know from anecdotal evidence is that the mortality rate is anywhere from 1% to 3.5% to 6+% approximately depending on various modeling by experts much smarter than anyone commenting here, myself included. That is significantly more serious than the common flu at a 10th of a percent. The effect among age groups for the corona virus is currently estimated to have a mortality rate as high as 30+% for adults over 60. The point of quarantine procedures is to slow down the spread of the virus so that hospitals have time to cope with the dead and dying which could number in the millions if the spread is unchecked. Imagine what a million dead people - over a period of a week or two - would do to our health care system ... Hospitals would be overwhelmed, refrigerated tractor trailer trucks would be required to handle the deluge of dead bodies ... If we take the lowest estimate for mortality of 1 percent for NYC and surrounding areas, that would amount to 150,000. deaths. 3.5 million nationally. Obviously we would have big trouble coping with so many deaths in a short period. Triple that for a 3% mortality rate. I don't trust shit coming from the NYCDOE. I don't see how schools will avoid closing. The virus has been spreading unchecked for at least a week in NYC areas - that's how long it typically takes before people begin to notice symptoms - so it's been a week or so since the first announced case in Winchester, we should know much more by the end of the week ... Solidarity.
I don’t know how the comments came to be about a conservative union who lets criminals out on the street ����.
I can say this, though. NYS and NYC seem to have put the best systems in place of anywhere in the world. They’re able to simply identify and remove any possible infected people from our population. That a government can do that is scary but it’s also very relieving and after seeing events unfold Saturday, where a state of emergency was declared and close to 4000 people across the state were just isolated, in the snap of a finger, I put those odds down to 3 in 10. State and city governments here should get high marks for their response thus far.
That is reassuring DOENuts.
Our students are already infected. Many don't have access to health care and many undocumented are fearful to see a doctor.
Its democrats chance to impeach Trumo through..... CORONAVIRUS.
So many dems including Bill Maher must be elated knowing the stock market is tanking.
Ohhhhhhh nooooooo people over 70 with pre existing conditions are dying, like this is not normal because usually people over 70 die from the flu. This is being sooooo overhyped.
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