FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JULY 29, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 27
kids & education
MIKE SEGAR
Mayor promises ‘major’ campaign to get eligible
children vaccinated ahead of fi rst day of school
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@schnepsmedia.com
@AODNewz
Th e city plans on undertaking a “major”
campaign to educate parents about the
COVID-19 vaccine and to get eligible
children vaccinated ahead of full return
to classrooms on Sept. 13, Mayor Bill de
Blasio said on Tuesday, July 20.
“A lot of parents are going to take it
upon themselves because they know vaccination
is widely available and free,” de
Blasio told reporters during a press conference.
“We’re going to also be doing
a major, major campaign to alert parents,
educate them, bring them in, make
it easy for them.” Details on the plan will
be announced in weeks ahead of the start
of school.
Th e mayor urged New Yorkers who
have still not received the shot to get a
COVID-19 vaccine as overall vaccination
rates continue to slow down across
the country. Th e groups with the slowest
vaccination rate are children between
the ages of 12 and 18, who became eligible
for the Pfi zer vaccine in late May. Over
9,757,650 vaccinations have been administered
across the fi ve boroughs, according
to city data.
“We got to build it up. We got to make
it more consistent,” de Blasio said before
reporting that the number of new coronavirus
cases across the fi ve boroughs has
been going up. On July 20, the number of
new cases based on a seven-day rolling
average had reached 576; 90 New York
City residents were admitted to a hospital
with possible COVID-19 symptoms with
almost 25 percent of them testing positive
for the virus; and the city’s COVID positivity
rate had reached 1.72 percent.
Th e yet-to-be-announced campaign
comes as parents, students and educators
become increasingly worried about
the city’s school opening plan this fall.
A growing number of parents and
Councilman Mark Treyger are calling for
the Department of Education to off er a
fully remote option, particularly for children
who are not eligible for the vaccine.
“DOE should off er a fall remote option
for kids not of vaccination age and have
it run by central rather than by individual
schools,” Treyger tweeted. “I support 5
days a week in person instruction for all,
but we need to follow science and adjust
accordingly while providing fl exibility for
families.”
Calls are also coming out of concern of
the COVID delta variant — which now
accounts for 83 percent of new COVID
infections — and due to a lack of distrust
in the city’s ability to abide by health and
safety protocols come September, a handful
of parents told amNew York Metro.
A nurse administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a 12-year-old child outside the Bronx Writing Academy school on June 4. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
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