The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department has continued the stay allowing the state’s mask requirement to remain in effect. For schools statewide, this means masks will continue to be required indoors until at least Feb. 21.
For the City School District of Albany, this represents a continuation of the COVID-19 health and safety protocol regarding masks that we have followed throughout this school year. We will continue to align with that guidance until we receive new recommendations from our health professionals, or a new judicial ruling changes the status.
Daily temperature checks no longer required to enter district buildings
The availability of COVID-19 rapid test kits from the state has provided an added safeguard that has allowed us to end daily temperature screening. Temperature screening will continue to be conducted as needed at each school’s nursing office.
Effective Monday, Feb. 7, the district no longer will require daily temperature screening to enter schools or district buildings. However, COVID-19 remains a serious public health threat, and all other COVID-19 protocols will remain in effect in all buildings, including wearing masks indoors and social distancing.
We also remind everyone to stay home and get tested if you are experiencing any symptoms. If the results of a student's at-home rapid test or an in-person COVID-19 PCR test are positive, please report that result immediately by emailing a picture of the positive result and the test kit, if applicable, to your school nurse (you can find contact information for the nurses on your school's web page).
The district reported 877 new COVID-19 cases during January. That is an average of 28.3 new cases per day – our previous high monthly average since the start of the pandemic was 6.2 new cases per day in December. The total cases we reported during January surpassed the total of reported cases for our district for the entire 2021 calendar year.
On a hopeful note, although the number of new cases remains high we are starting to see a declining trend. From Jan. 1-21, we reported an average of 36 new cases per day. From Jan. 22-31, the daily average dropped to just more than 12 per day.
