January 3 coronavirus pandemic and Omicron variant news

The Chicago Teachers Union is planning to convene an emergency meeting to vote on whether its teachers would move strictly to virtual teaching amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, according to a union official, setting up a potential lockout with the school district.  

Chicago Public Schools, the third largest school district in the country, resumed in-person learning Monday and has maintained its conditions are safe for in-person instruction. 

The union meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, would include a poll of the group's delegates, (elected union leaders for individual schools,) on if they support a return to remote learning until the pandemic is under better control.

The union will also be sending the same question electronically to its roughly 25,000 rank-and-file members Tuesday, according to the official. If rank-and-file members vote to return to remote learning, those teachers would notify their respective principals either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning that they would be ready to teach, but remotely.

At that point, it would be in the hands of Chicago Public Schools to potentially lock teachers out of their remote classrooms, as the district has threatened to do under similar circumstances in the past.

At a union virtual town hall meeting Sunday, about 80% of the 8,000 members who attended indicated they did not want to return to work in-person under the current conditions, according to the union official.

It could trigger a “mass electronic lockout,” the official said.

Part of the union hesitation to return has come from a recent surge in Covid-19 cases among both students and in the community, along with uncertainty over the current picture of infection.

According to data released by Chicago Public Schools, 35,590 tests were completed by students and staff between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1, and 24,843 were declared invalid. Of those tests that were accepted, 18% tested positive for Covid-19.

In a statement to CNN, Chicago Public Schools wrote, “Over the holiday weekend, we learned from our vendors, ThermoFisher and Color, that more than half of the 40,000 submitted tests could not be validated. While we continue to seek answers, we are focused on increasing on-site testing opportunities for the impacted students and schools this week as part of our ongoing weekly testing.” 

Additionally, as the school district headed into winter break, it reported its highest weekly Covid-19 case count since the school year began. Citywide over the past two weeks, Chicago has reported its highest daily case counts of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

“Remote two-way live online instruction” is available for any students directed to quarantine.

Primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands will reopen next week despite a strict national lockdown, the Dutch government announced on Monday. Higher education, including trade schools and universities, will remain closed for in-person learning.

“Primary schools, secondary schools and schools for special (secondary) education will reopen on January 10, 2022. This also applies to out-of-school care,” the government said in a news release. “According to the OMT [Outbreak Management Team], that is responsible.”

“In vocational education, colleges, and universities, online education will be provided because of an increase in the number of infections in this age category, except for the previously excluded groups," the statement continued.

More context: The government last month said that schools would be closed to in-person learning starting Dec. 20. For primary school students, that meant starting the so-called Christmas vacation a week early.

The Netherlands has been in a strict lockdown since Dec. 19, in an effort to curb the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. All hospitality venues and non-essential shops have been closed, the government has advised people to stay at home as much as possible, and has said that people should receive no more than two visitors per day.

The president of one of the largest teachers’ unions in New York City says he is concerned about safely staffing schools this week in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases in the city. 

Mulgrew told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that he wanted to avoid a scenario where there is a high rate of student attendance combined with low staff, resulting in a lower than normal rate of teachers to students.

Only one New York City school closed Monday due to staffing issues. There are more than 1,700 schools in the New York City system – the largest in the country.

Mulgrew said Sunday was a frustrating day for teachers who were trying to get tested because they faced long lines at testing sites.

“The teachers have had a very difficult time trusting government. Let’s just put it that way. So we now have a new mayor. We’ll see where that goes,” Mulgrew said earlier Monday outside The American Sign Language & English Lower School in New York City.

The city distributed 1.5 million Covid test kits as well as KH95 masks to schools over the weekend.

Mulgrew also urged parents to get their children vaccinated. “We need your children vaccinated,” he said. “We need the vaccination rate to go up for our 5 to 11-year-olds.”

The number of positive coronavirus infection rates at the Capitol’s testing center have increased from 1% to 13%, according to a letter from the Office of the Attending Physician that was sent to congressional offices and obtained by CNN.

This comes as coronavirus cases have exploded in the DC area, which has the highest number of cases per population size in the country, according to the letter. Over a dozen lawmakers have announced breakthrough cases in recent weeks.

The Office of the Attending Physician (OAP) says most of the positive cases identified at the Capitol are breakthrough infections among vaccinated individuals and have not “led to hospitalizations, serious complications, or deaths, attesting to the value of coronavirus vaccinations.” So far, the OAP has administered booster vaccinations to more than 7,500 Capitol personnel.

The OAP advised offices to shift to a “maximal telework posture” and wear masks for any group activity indoors. The OAP also said “blue surgical masks, cloth face masks and gaiter masks must be replaced by the more protective KN95 or N95 masks.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul didn’t sugar coat it Monday when speaking about Covid-19 metrics, saying “We’re not in a good place, I’m going to be really honest with you.”

“This is the winter surge we predicted,” she said speaking at SUNY Rochester Educational Opportunity Center.

“Our numbers are misleading today,” the governor continued, reporting approximately 51,000 positive cases.

“They didn’t go from nearly 90,000 to 51,000," she said, noting that the shift in latest case numbers is due to people not getting tested over the weekend.

“Unfortunately I’m going to say is a result of the holiday weekend. Those numbers are probably going to be much higher tomorrow," the governor added.

She said the numbers are “rather shocking,” and while people are testing positive at a much higher rate “the severity of the illness is far less than we’ve seen before.”

She recalled the first Omicron case was reported on Dec. 2 and said “literally a month later we have enough data to say right now — we can say with certainty — that the cases are not presenting themselves as severely as they could have or we had feared. That is a silver lining…”

The state is also reporting an increase in hospitalizations – up at least 9,563. Hochul said the trend in hospitalizations is shooting up, and she’d “love to see it come straight down.”

The governor said beginning Tuesday, her team is going to poll hospitals to see how many people are being hospitalized for Covid-19 symptoms vs how many people are being hospitalized for other issues and develop Covid-19, to give more transparency.

“Hospital capacity is still hospital capacity, you either have beds for sick people or you don’t,” she said.

Speaking from northern New York, she said specifically the Finger Lakes hospitals had 2.8% bed capacity and Monroe County 1.8% bed capacity. “That’s a low number,” she said, reminding that the federal government has sent resources to assist, including nat guard members who are training. 

Right now there are 21 hospitals that have elective procedures paused, something that happens when they are at only 10% capacity left. This is down from 32, she said.

Meanwhile, New York has obtained 37 million at-home test kits and has begun distributing them, in part to Rochester to be distributed to schools.

Hochul said 103 people were reported to have died from Covid-19 related complications, and she mentioned by name a 17-year-old from the Rochester community.

She also said SUNY schools were going to open additional testing sites to the public beginning tomorrow.

Maryland is mandating masks in all state-run facilities, according to an announcement Monday from Gov. Larry Hogan. 

The effort is one of several announced Monday in the hope of slowing the state's Covid-19 surge. 

The state reported a seven-day positivity rate of 27% on Sunday, with 2,746 residents hospitalized with Covid-19 — more than any other time since the start of the pandemic.

Hogan also announced that state employees will be eligible for two hours of paid leave to receive a Covid-19 booster shot.

The state reports administering over 1.6 million booster doses so far.

Leaders of the US Food and Drug Administration did not formally consult their advisory board before expanding booster eligibility to children ages 12 to 15 on Monday, as the rapid rise in cases across the country made it clear that the benefits of vaccination clearly outweighed the risks, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said Monday during a call with reporters.

The agency used real-world data from Israel, including safety data from 6,300 children ages 12 to 15 who received a booster dose. There were no new cases of myocarditis or pericarditis reported.

The FDA uses “discretion” when bringing questions to its advisory board, focusing on those that require public discussion, Marks said, and the current situation made the risk-benefit analysis clear.

“That’s not to say we don’t care about this and that – it’s not important. But what it is to say is that in the setting of a tremendous number of Omicron and Delta cases in this country, the potential benefits of getting vaccinated in this age range outweigh that risk,” Marks said. “It made sense to move as quickly as we possibly could.”

Marks said that data shows that the risk of myocarditis is lower with a booster dose than it is for the second dose among children ages 12 to 15, and cases have been generally mild with minimal long-lasting effects.

“The inference here is that the risk of myocarditis with third doses in the 12 to 15 year age range is likely to be quite acceptable given the potential benefits.”

Vaccine manufacturers are all working toward the possibility of an Omicron-specific vaccine, but it might not be necessary, leaders of the US Food and Drug Administration said Monday.

If a booster shot of the current vaccine appears to offer sufficient protection, there is less need for a variant-specific vaccine, said acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.

“The last thing we want to do is just be going through and getting new vaccines and this and that if the current boosters look like they will really do the job against Omicron,” she said. “Then, we also have to consider that we might have additional variants, but we will be ready to switch if needed.”

More than 4 million children between the ages of 15 and 18 were vaccinated on Monday after the Indian government approved Covid-19 vaccines for the age group last month.

“Well done Young India! Over 4 million between 15-18 age group received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on the 1st day of vaccination drive for children. This is another feather in the cap of India’s vaccination drive,” India’s Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted Monday.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took to Twitter on Monday in praise of vaccinations for children ages 15 to 18, “Today we have taken an important step forward in protecting our youth against COVID-19. Congrats to all my young friends between the age group of 15-18 who got vaccinated.Congrats to their parents as well. I would urge more youngsters to get vaccinated in the coming days!” 

India has been slow at issuing approval of vaccines for children and overall with the rollout of booster shots. Last month, during a Christmas Day address, Modi announced the start of limited shots of vaccines for children and booster shots for certain citizens.

Booster shots will be available for people aged 60 and older with pre-existing medical conditions, healthcare personnel and frontline workers starting on Jan. 10.

The third wave of Covid-19 has caused a surge in the number of reported cases in India, with the Ministry of Health reporting 33,750 new Covid-19 cases on Monday morning.