“We’ve got to do risk-benefit analysis here, and at least among children, we have to think of this as similar to flu,” Dr. Arwady said, explaining that Chicago is averaging seven child hospitalizations per day because of Covid-19.
But the district’s bungled effort to test tens of thousands of students over winter break only added to parents’ and teachers’ concerns. Most of the roughly 150,000 mail-in P.C.R. tests given to students were never returned. Of the 40,000 or so tests that were mailed in, a majority produced invalid results.
Mr. Martinez said that many families had trouble following the test instructions, and that he had learned an important lesson: that student testing should be conducted at schools in order to be effective.
“I wanted to reduce the anxiety level, and I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t achieve that,” said Mr. Martinez, who called on the federal government to address the persistent shortages of tests. Moving forward, the district has committed to providing at least 30,000 screening tests per week; there are about 340,000 students in the system.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised schools to avoid quarantines and closures by using a protocol known as test-to-stay, in which close contacts of positive virus cases take two rapid antigen tests in a week; only those who test positive must stay home.
But officials in Chicago, like those in many cities and towns across the country, said they did not have nearly the number of rapid tests they needed.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/us/chicago-teachers-union-remote-learning.html
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