The request is part of the reopening plan for school safety presented at a press conference on Wednesday by Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). UFT represents nearly 200,000 NYC educators for public schools and school professionals.
Mulgrew suggested that all adults and parents consider going for an antibody test, and that a two-month positive antibody test would be recognized, according to UFT’s plan.
“Within 10 days of a school opening, you should go for a Covid test and have a negative result before joining that school building,” said Mulgrew of those who did not have a positive anti-school result.
Cuomo: Opening schools is ‘risky’
“Look at that and then look at your school reorganization plan and how would you make sure you do not get into that situation? What was your test procedure? Could it have become so quick so fast?” Cuomo sei.
Cuomo also suggested that an outbreak in a K-12 school would be more problematic than an outbreak in a college.
“Honestly at a college, it’s not that bad because the student infects other students,” he said. “K-12, if you have 130 students positive, it’s not 130, it’s 500, because a student would have been home and dealing with people in their immediate family.”
“The basic premise is opening schools is risky and problematic,” Cuomo added.
UFT said Wednesday it has more than 100 staff members attending NYC schools to monitor the conditions of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilation and cleaning supplies. Mulgrew stresses the importance of all schools receiving the same support and meeting the same criteria.
“We do not need a hotline to set up if there is a problem,” Mulgrew said. “We want to assure parents and teachers that things are already in place before they go to school.”
The hotline’s reference was an apparent count on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s remarks Tuesday that a hotline will be available to all principals for PPE’s “rapid re-offer” once the school reopens.
Mulgrew said the UFT plan was developed alongside medical experts, and he asked Blasio to adopt it before NYC schools open in early September.
“No New York school should open unless it meets the criteria, all the criteria, in our school safety report,” Mulgrew said.
CNN’s Julian Cummings and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
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