New York eases Covid rules for schools

New York, Aug 23 (IANS) New York state has announced its decision to ease some Covid-19 control rules for students from kindergarten to grade 12 in the upcoming new school year.

The new guidance will align the state's Covid-19 control rules with the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reports Xinhua news agency.

"The big news is no more quarantining, no more test-to-stay, and the days of sending an entire classroom home because one person was symptomatic or test positive, those days are over," Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement on Monday.

Both students and staff don't have to quarantine following exposure to someone with Covid but are recommended to wear a well-fitting mask and get tested, according to New York State authorities.

Still, "students and staff with symptoms of respiratory or gastrointestinal infections, such as cough, fever, sore throat, vomiting or diarrhoea should be sent home or directed to stay home", the New York State Department of Heath said in a release on frequently asked questions in this regard.

Following the steps of the CDC, New York State is also no longer recommending screening testing, which means random testing for people who have no symptoms.

Still, individual schools could continue to ask for screening testing in high-risk activities.

The government also will continue to distribute test kits for students in addition to efforts to encourage vaccination of school-aged kids.

New York State now has 16.64 cases among each 100,000 people with the proportion of positive Covid-19 testing at 7.74 per cent, according to data issued on Monday.