DC Schools to Require Students, Staff to Provide Negative Covid Tests Before Returning

Washington, D.C. schools will require returning students and staff members to obtain a negative Covid-19 test if they wish to return for classes next week, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday.

“We’re expecting all of them to take a test and report a test on Tuesday” of the coming week, Bowser said at a morning press conference, where she was joined by D.C. Public Health Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee. Families are expected to pick up tests on Monday, the same day staffers are scheduled to provide their results. If enough staff members receive positive results, schools will transition to what Bowser called “situational virtual learning.”

Eighty-eight percent of D.C. residents have been at least partially vaccinated against Covid-19, 16 points higher than the national rate of 73 percent. But the city has been among the strictest in the nation when it comes to Covid-19 restrictions, with Bowser’s school announcement coming a week after she re-instituted an indoor mask mandate, in addition to a new rule mandating that private businesses require Covid-19 vaccines for their customers.

“We should expect classrooms or schools or grade levels to temporarily transition to a virtual learning posture as needed throughout the remainder of this semester in the coming weeks and throughout the school year,” Ferebee said at Wednesday press conference. “All of these decisions we do not take lightly.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a similarly enhanced testing regimen a day earlier aimed at reopening dozens of schools shuttered out of fear of the virus. United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew complained about that city’s move to reopen, saying in a statement the “real issue” was “whether the city can do its job – ensuring that new testing initiatives are available in every school and an improved situation room is actually in place by next week.”

Watch above via CNN.