REMEMBER COVID-19? IT HASN'T GONE AWAY

 Here is today's NYC DOE Situation Room COVID-19 map.

Am I missing something or is COVID-19 spreading all over the place again in the schools? 

I hear nothing from the UFT about this but here is the not very comforting email I received from my daughter's school today.

Dear 7th Grade Parent, 

Please see the attached letter regarding a Confirmed COVID case in your child's classroom.  Student will only be required to quarantine if they are considered a close contact.  Close contacts were sent additional an additional notification letter.  

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, 

Assistant Principal

That attached letter isn't very parent-friendly. If we decide to quarantine out of caution, no remote instruction. The relevant part:

● Students and staff who are considered close contacts of the individual who tested positive have bee notified of the need to quarantine for 10 days from their last contact with the person who tested positive. These students and staff will transition to fully remote teaching and learning for this period. If you have not been notified that your child is a close contact, they may continue to attend school as usual. Students who are not close contacts are not permitted to quarantine. Students who self-quarantine will be marked absent and will not be provided with remote instruction.

The near future doesn't look very bright nationally in terms of COVID. This is from Politico:

Stubborn Covid Surge Signals Bleak Winter

Coronavirus cases are rising once again, disrupting classrooms, overwhelming hospitals and alarming public health officials — even in areas with high vaccination rates — who warn the country is headed for a holiday surge that could leave thousands dead.

Though nearly 70 percent of the country has had at least one shot and hospitalizations have fallen from their September highs, the news in many states remains grim and the trend lines portend a fresh wave in the coming weeks.

Further down:

There was hope that this year would be different. In addition to vaccines, there are effective treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies, that can significantly reduce the chance of hospitalization and death.

Yet, as of Sunday evening, the country is averaging more than 1,100 deaths a day — almost the same tally as last year at this time before the vaccines had been authorized. That’s partly because millions of Americans remain unvaccinated and because the Delta variant is so much more transmissible than the version of the virus circulating back then.

And more:

The increasing Covid-related hospitalizations and deaths are still primarily among the unvaccinated but even places with the highest immunization rates are seeing spikes in cases.

Europe isn't looking too good either. This is from the Guardian:

Most Germans will be “vaccinated, cured or dead” from Covid-19 in a few months, the country’s health minister has warned, as Germany’s southern neighbour Austria put its population of 8.9 million back under a nationwide lockdown.

As intensive care units near capacity and hospitals contend with a shortage of staff and respiratory apparatus, doctors have said they are ready to apply a triage system that would prioritise care for patients judged to have the best chance of survival.

“Probably by the end of the winter, more or less everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, cured or dead,” the health minister, Jens Spahn, said. “That sounds cynical, but that is the reality.”

Spahn said the highly contagious Delta variant made his prediction very probable and that was why the government was so urgently recommending vaccination.

We're getting our boosters tomorrow. My doctor recommended getting it as soon as possible to me.