Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories

Erie County distributes face masks & COVID-19 test kits to schools and school districts

Submitted

Wed, Sep 29th 2021 12:25 pm

Adult and child-sized masks supplied by New York state

√ Antigen test kits offered to schools on a limited basis for staff who cannot provide COVID-19 vaccination status

The Erie County Department of Health and Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services distributed supplies to school districts and non-public schools on Wednesday, to aid in their COVID-19 prevention activities.

“Gov. Hochul announced that this resource would be provided to county health departments for use by schools, and our distribution team did an incredible job to coordinate distribution of about 339,000 face masks to more than 100 Erie County schools,” Commissioner of Health Dr. Gale Burstein said. “We are very glad to be able to support masking in schools as an effective preventive measure against COVID-19 with this resource.”

Schools in New York have requirements related to routine testing of school staff who do not provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination.

“While schools and staff are finding a more permanent way of routine testing for unvaccinated staff or starting their COVID-19 vaccine series, ECDOH purchased antigen test kits to make that transition easier for schools,” Burstein explained. “Nearly 50 schools and school districts requested tests, and ECDOH is including two weeks’ worth of tests with their mask supply.”

For more:

√ Erie County Department of Health school testing: www.erie.gov/schooltesting

√ ECDOH COVID-19 vaccine information and clinic schedule: http://www.erie.gov/vax

√ ECDOH COVID-19 information line: 716-858-2929 – foreign language interpretation available

√ ECDOH COVID-19 weekly data updates: https://www2.erie.gov/health/index.php?q=covid-19-media-data

√ Erie County COVID-19 wastewater testing: http://erie.gov/covid19-wastewater

√ New York State Department of Health, COVID-19 boosters: http://ny.gov/boosters

Hometown News

View All News