Blaz: 44% of ed staff have vax
At least 65,000 city Education Department staffers have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine — about 44% of the full workforce, officials said Friday.
The tally is likely an undercount of all 150,000 Education Department employees because it includes only vaccines administered in the five boroughs to city residents, officials noted. Roughly 110,000 department staffers are currently working in school buildings, Mayor de Blasio said.
The rising vaccine numbers are a “very positive factor” for the safety of kids and staff in school buildings, de Blasio said in remarks to WNYC on Friday. “When you get adults vaccinated on this high of a level, it just fundamentally changes the reality.”
De Blasio pointed to a study estimating 80% of the small number of in-school COVID-19 transmissions started with adults — suggesting that vaccinating staff can significantly reduce the risk in buildings even before kids get shots.
City officials have since January given vaccine priority to Education Department staffers working in school buildings.
The shots haven’t been equally distributed among all DOE staffers, however. While roughly half of city teachers, administrators, counselors and social workers have gotten at least one dose, only 36% of paraprofessionals, food workers, and administrative staff have been vaccinated.
Paraprofessionals suffered a brutal toll from COVID-19, dying at four times the rate of other DOE staffers.
The vaccination news comes as city officials gear up to expand the number of children attending in-person classes. Families currently enrolled in all-remote classes have until next Wednesday to opt into in-person classes. Officials have only given a concrete timeline for younger students to return to school buildings.
City officials are also preparing to adjust social-distancing rules to allow more students in elementary schools, based on new CDC guidance suggesting 3 feet of distance rather than 6 feet is enough for younger kids. De Blasio said he’s still awaiting for the state to weigh in on the new federal guidance.
There’s been mounting opposition to existing protocols for shutting down individual school buildings because of COVID-19 cases. The current rule closes buildings automatically if two cases in separate classrooms are reported within a week, and buildings stay shut for 10 days if it can’t be determined where the cases originated or if they’re linked.
The city teachers union has opposed changing the rule.
De Blasio acknowledged Friday health officials have a lot more information about how to keep schools safe than they did last summer, and promised an update on the two-case rule next week.