School COVID case rate drops | News, Sports, Jobs

By John Whittaker

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The rate of school children who have contracted COVID-19 has declined over the past week, according to statistics from local school districts submitted to New York state officials.

When the New York State School COVID Report went online on September 27, 1.4% of children enrolled in area schools had a positive COVID-19 test. That number fell to 1.12% on Monday. In Jamestown, the percentage of enrolled students who tested positive for COVID fell from 2.53% to 1.49% while the percentage in the city of Dunkirk school district fell slightly from 1.27% to 1.17%.

The percentage of tests administered to schoolchildren who come back positive is also down, from 11.66% at the end of September to 8.15% until Monday. The majority of positive cases in schools continue to come from students, with fewer teachers and staff testing positive locally until Monday than until the end of September.

The decrease in COVID-19 cases in schools works against the growing number of cases in Chautauqua, according to data published in the NY Forward database. Data released Wednesday night showed 80 new cases in Chautauqua County through Tuesday and 47 new cases on Monday. In the past 14 days, 7.7% of people tested in Chautauqua County for COVID-19 have tested positive for the virus.

The NY Forward database also shows that 30% of hospital beds in western New York State are available and 18% of intensive care beds are available in the region.

State statistics show that 65.3% of residents of Chautauqua County over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the third highest percentage in the region’s five counties. western New York State behind Erie and Niagara counties. Chautauqua County ranks in the middle of the pack in western New York State in terms of hospital worker vaccination at 85%, ranking below Niagara and Erie counties and ahead of Allegany (80% ) and Cattaraugus (75%).

The county’s percentage of long-term care staff who received a COVID-19 vaccination is 99% through Tuesday, tied with Niagara County for the highest in western New York.

Governor Kathy Hochul has worked to increase the percentage of 12-18 year olds receiving the COVID-19 vaccine with her #Vaxtoschool pop-up COVID-19 vaccine sites, although the governor said on Tuesday that she saw the vaccine effort for young children move from schools to pediatrician offices across the state.

“But one is when we are going to be able to involve the younger children, the pediatricians, get ready”, Hochul said at a press conference. “We want you to start signing up to make sure you have full access to the vaccine. So we don’t waste a single moment. Once the approval comes in and the pediatrician’s offices make the most sense, you know a lot of adults have a habit of going to a pharmacy to get their flu shot. I did this myself, but I think that when it comes to your child, you will feel more secure in your doctor’s office. And so we don’t want to have problems with them, not be able to do it for the families and make sure they have enough provisions. So pediatricians please sign up so we can follow you up and make sure you have what you need.

Preparations may need to be ready sooner rather than later. Pfizer on Thursday asked the U.S. government to allow its COVID-19 vaccine to be used in children aged 5 to 11 – and if regulators agree, injections could start within weeks. Pfizer announced in a tweet that it had officially filed its claim with the Food and Drug Administration. Now the FDA will need to decide if there is enough evidence that the injections are safe and will work for young children as they do for adolescents and adults. A group of independent experts will publicly debate the evidence on October 26.

Pfizer says its research shows that young children should receive one-third of the dose now given to everyone. After their second dose, children aged 5 to 11 developed anti-virus antibody levels as strong as adolescents and young adults receive regular strength injections. While children are at lower risk of serious illness or death than the elderly, COVID-19 sometimes kills children and cases among young people have skyrocketed as the delta variant swept the country

Pfizer studied the lowest dose in 2,268 volunteers aged 5 to 11 and said there were no serious side effects. The study is not large enough to detect extremely rare side effects, such as heart inflammation that sometimes occurs after the second dose of the regular strength vaccine, mostly in young men.

If the FDA allows the emergency use of doses for children, there is another hurdle before vaccinations in this age group can begin. Counselors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will decide whether to recommend injections for young people, and the CDC will make a final decision.

To avoid dosage confusion, Pfizer plans to ship specially labeled vials for pediatric use containing the lowest dose.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report