Earlier this month, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced new Quarantine guidelines as Chicago Public Schools plans to provide stronger regulations for its students. Lightfoot initiated these changes because she believes the district’s current rules dictate over-quarantining.
However, the Chicago Teachers Union disagrees with the mayor’s assessment. The CTU believes that over-quarantining is a good thing during a pandemic using the mindset of choosing safety first.
Jensen Elementary School, located on the Westside, has experienced issues with COVID. Last month, 11 out of 17 students were quarantined as a precaution. Two mothers of Jensen students died from the virus due to their quarantined children who were exposed to COVID-positive classmates.
Lightfoot has asked for help from the Chicago Public Health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, for up-to-date guidelines to best deal with COVID-19. The doctor will hold weekly briefings on Tuesday afternoons to provide insight into new rules for all CPS schools and constantly updated information from the CDC.
This weekly routine works to give schools and the principal of those schools the proper information needed to make intelligent decisions on who and who not to quarantine and keep citizens updated in “real-time,” says Lightfoot. The mayor is sure there will be a benefit to the districts with this new plan.
As of Tuesday, October 5, 1,100 students and 307 adults have tested positive for COVID this school year, with 6,391 students In quarantine along with 306 adults as reported by the District website. However, as this is only the beginning of the school year, better precautions must be taken for cases to decline to an eventual number of zero in schools.
Written by Mikal Eggleston
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Source:
Chicago CBS News: Chicago Public Schools Releasing New Quarantine Procedures Tuesday
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Inline Image Courtesy of Wendy Lefkowich’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
