CITY SETS NEW TARGETS FOR COVID-19
VACCINES AS CASE RATES INCREASE
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
New York City doesn’t
have plans to change its current
mask-wearing policy in
schools and adhere to recently
updated guidelines from
the Centers of Disease Control
and Prevention, Mayor
Bill de Blasio said Monday,
July 12.
In a major policy shift
last week, the CDC called for
the full reopening of schools
across the country even if
doing so meant dropping its
three-foot social distancing
requirement and recommended
only unvaccinated
adults and children wear
masks while inside school
buildings.
The New York State Department
of Health is currently
reviewing the amended
guidelines, and their
decision on whether to relax
mask-wearing requirements
in schools could impact
whether the DOE adopts the
new CDC recommendations.
But for now, New York City
public school families should
expect that teachers, staff
and students regardless of
vaccination status will need
to face coverings in classrooms
this fall, according to
de Blasio.
“There will be a lot of
communication before
school and once it begins. For
now, assume we are wearing
masks,” de Blasio told reporters
during a morning press
conference. “But that could
change as we get closer …
we will be driven by the data
and see what the science has
to say.”
The CDC guideline changes
TIMESLEDGER | Q 22 NS.COM | JULY 16-JULY 22, 2021
come amid a national push
to boost slowing vaccination
rates across the country. De
Blasio started off his Monday
press conference touting
New York City’s vaccination
rate stating that 4.4 million
city residents are now fully
vaccinated against the virus.
According tothe CDC,
about 4.9 million New York
City residents are fully vaccinated
against the virus
and 5.4 million people, or
about 64 percent of the city’s
population, have received at
least one dose of the vaccine,
which falls just a little below
the nation’s overall rate.
De Blasio told reporters
Monday the city planned to
keep its current mask-wearing
policy in place due to its
efficacy in mitigating the
spread of the virus in school
communities.
“By the end of the school
year, positivity in the schools
was almost non-existent … so
we are going to keep a lot of
those same pieces in place,”
de Blasio said.
Reach reporter Alejandra
O'Connell-Domenech at
adomenech@schnepsmedia.com.
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
City health officials
are setting their sights on
younger New Yorkers for
COVID-19 vaccines, as infection
rates have ticked up in
recent weeks and the highly
contagious Delta variant has
become one of the dominant
strains in the five boroughs.
“The spread of the Delta
variant means that it is perhaps
the most dangerous
time to be unvaccinated,”
said Department of Health
Commissioner Dr. Dave
Chokshi during Mayor Bill
de Blasio’s daily press briefing
Monday, July 12. “You’ll
see an even more concerted
push around ensuring that
younger people get vaccinated
over the course of the
summer.”
COVID-19 positivity rates
have increased since late
June, with thelatest Health
Department data showing a
1.2 percent percent positivity
rate and 328 new cases
citywide across a seven-day
average as of July 10, up from
0.59 percent and 200 cases on
June 27.
Luckily, hospitalization
rates remain fairly low at a
rate of 0.28 per 100,000 across
a seven-day average and 78
people admitted to hospitals
with suspected COVID-19 as
of July 10. Officials attribute
the low hospitalization rate
to vaccinations.
But some pockets of the
city remain stubbornly higher
in their case rates and lower
in vaccinations, according
to Chokshi.
“We’re seeing, for example,
in Staten Island the percent
positivity and the case
numbers have increased in
recent days and weeks, and
that’s because we have unvaccinated
individuals, particularly
younger people,
who remain unvaccinated,”
said the city’s doctor.
On parts of the Rock,
COVID-19 positivity ratesranged
from 3-4 percent in
some neighborhoods where
vaccination rates where
largely below 50 percent.
The city will focus its
outreach on mobile vaccine
buses, working with community
groups, and offering
at-home vaccinations to anyone
to curb low inoculation
rates, with a specific focus
on young people, according
to de Blasio.
“We’re going to have
a particular opportunity
around younger folks in the
lead up to school. I think a lot
of parents are going to want
to get their young people vaccinated,”
Hizzoner said.
The Delta variant, which
emerged in India late last
year and ismore transmissiblethan
previous forms of the
disease, hasmade up more
than a quarter, or 26 percent,
of all cases in the city over
the past four weeks, the same
amount as the B.1.1.7 variant
first detected in the United
Kingdom.
The available vaccines
— either the one-and-done
Johnson & Johnson shot or
the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna
serums — are effective
against the Delta variantof
COVID-19 and other forms of
the virus.
Vaccinated people can
still contract COVID-19, but
the antibodies built up in
their immune systems from
the shot are highly effective
at preventing serious, lifethreatening
illness.
NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi at an April press
conference. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayor’s Offi ce
Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Friends School
Mayor keeping school mask
requirement in place despite
new CDC recommendations
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