The average number of daily Covid-19 cases Tuesday reached 265,427 — a new pandemic high, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The previous record of 251,989 was set January 11.
It comes just as pediatric Covid-19 hospitalizations rise and millions of children get ready to go back to school next week. Pediatrician Dr. Peter Hotez said he thinks some schools in areas of very high transmission should delay a return to in-person learning.
“I wouldn’t do it now,” Hotez said Tuesday night. “You have got a screaming level of transmission in the Northeast, in New York City and Washington, DC. Trying to open schools at this point, it’s hard to imagine how things will go well.”
But the US Department of Education is urging school districts to take safety measures to ensure classrooms remain open for in-person learning in the second half of the school year, according to a new resource guide addressed to school leaders and obtained Monday by CNN.
“It is incredibly important that all schools work to remain open for in-person learning five days a week, especially in light of the Omicron variant,” the guide said.
Despite a recent onslaught of Covid-19 cases in New York City, the nation’s largest public school system will reopen as planned next Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. The city’s public schools will give a week’s worth of at-home tests to students who test positive so they can monitor their condition and return as soon as it’s safe, he said Tuesday.
Child hospitalizations creep toward pandemic peak
Across the country, an average of 305 children were fighting Covid-19 in a hospital on any given day during the week that ended Sunday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services.
That’s a more than 48% increase from the previous week and 10.7% lower than the peak average of 342 children who were admitted to hospitals with the virus at the end of August and early September.
Source : cnn
