Due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, some school systems across the United States have extended Monday’s vacation or switched back to online teaching, while others continue to face-to-face when it seems that more and more people believe that Americans must learn to cooperate The curriculum coexists with the virus.

Sandwiched between teachers who are afraid of infection and parents who want their children to attend classes, school districts in cities such as Milwaukee, New York, and Detroit found themselves in trouble at the beginning of the second half of the school year because of the ultra-contagious omicron variant.

New York City is home to the largest public school system in the United States. It has reopened classrooms to approximately 1 million students and has COVID-19 test kits to take home. It plans to double the number of random tests in schools.

The newly sworn-in mayor Eric Adams said on MSNBC: “We will stay safe, and we will be open to educating our children.”

Trisha White, a New Yorker, said she feels that her 9-year-old son has the same risks whether he goes to school or after school. For him, spending time with classmates is better than studying remotely.

“He might get the virus outside of school,” she said when sending the boy. “Then what can you do? You know, I don’t blame the school system. They are doing their best.”

Although the teachers’ union has asked the mayor to postpone face-to-face learning for a week, city officials have long stated that mask requirements, testing, and other safety measures mean that children are safe in school. The city also vaccinated employees.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in the city surged from an average of approximately 17,000 in the week before the holiday to nearly 37,000 last week.

With many Americans eager to get tested, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States has tripled in the past two weeks to more than 400,000 cases per day, the highest level on record. The epidemic has brought a heavy burden to important economic sectors, including hospitals and the aviation industry, and a large number of employees in these sectors have been infected.

Public health experts say that eradicating the virus is impossible. On the contrary, the world must find a way to control COVID-19 to an acceptable level, just like the flu.

Policy makers and health authorities have been concerned about the impact on the economy and education system.

Last week, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened the recommended COVID-19 quarantine period from 10 days to 5 days, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Varensky said: “We want to ensure that there is a mechanism that allows us to safely Continue to keep society functioning while following science.”

Another development on Monday may have an impact on the school’s ability to remain open. The Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer to inject booster injections for 12-year-old children. It has been recommended that everyone who is 16 years of age and older get a booster shot.

Elsewhere in the country, Syracuse, New York, cancelled schools on Monday because of the increasing number of infections and the lack of substitute teachers to make up for absenteeism.

In Wisconsin, due to an increase in faculty and staff cases, the Milwaukee school system will resume virtual teaching on Tuesday, which has 75,000 students. The school district stated that its goal is to resume face-to-face classes on January 10.

The Madison District of Wisconsin also announced that it will switch to virtual learning from Thursday.

The head of the Detroit school, Nikolai Vitti, told parents that face-to-face or online learning will not be possible until Wednesday because of the high rate of employee infections, which may lead to the widespread spread of COVID-19 and an “excessive shortage of personnel” .

The Peoria area of ??Illinois extended its winter vacation by one week.

The school in Davenport, Iowa announced the cancellation of all classes for the day earlier on Monday, which surprised parents because the shortage of school bus drivers was at least partly attributable to COVID-19.

With classrooms reopening as planned, educators in Minnesota prepared for the surge in coronavirus cases.

Bob Indihar, executive director of the Minnesota Rural Education Association, said: “What I hear from managers is that they are nervous about omicron.” “Change is about to happen seems to be the new normal, isolation and people going out.” It’s just part of the current process. All regions are responding calmly.”

The chairman of the National Parent Alliance, a parent organization network, called the sudden switch to virtual learning “disgusting.”

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“Once again, parents are scrambling at the last minute, and to make matters worse, too many children are deprived of the face-to-face learning experience, which is vital to their academic and social emotional development,” Keri Rodrigues said in a statement. .

Due to the surge, many companies have also shelved or postponed plans to resume work. Thousands of flights have been cancelled in recent days, partly due to staff shortages.

Dawn Crawley, chief executive of House Cleaning Heroes, a cleaning service company in Herndon, Virginia, said she had to cancel 4 of the 20 cleaning jobs on Tuesday because four employees were sick — three of them were infected COVID-19.

“The worry is that it will run through the entire team” and customers, she said.