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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. October 20, 2022:
Last week, WPCNR asked for details on the Westchester County program to distribute over 3,600 air purifiers to 29 Westchester school districts. Carolyn Fortino, Deputy Director of the Department of Communications furnished further background in response to these WPCNR queries in this written statement:
WPCNR: Why did the county feel it was important to provide the air purifiers to 29 school districts of Westchester’s 41 districts?
Ms. Fortino: The County had remaining funds from the ELC Reopening Schools grant (meant to help districts stay safe and open for learning during the COVID-19 pandemic) and one of the allowable costs for that grant is portable air purifiers for classrooms.
While these machines eliminate 99.99% of COVID-19 particles from the air, the benefits of cleaning the air extend far beyond that. The units help to eliminate other virus, bacteria, mold, allergens, dust and VOCs from the air, thus improving air quality overall. The air purifiers are a sound investment to help keep classrooms safe and teachers and students healthy through COVID and beyond.
WPCNR: Were all school districts polled/analyzed by county, as to which districts needed the purifiers, and why did they need them — (i.e., failure to equip all their buildings with air purifiers for all rooms?
Ms. Fortino: Yes, this opportunity was made available to ALL public K-12 school districts. A memo outlining the program and a survey to opt into (or out of) the program was sent to all school districts, and follow up calls were attempted to any districts that had not responded to the survey by the deadline. The districts that are not receiving purifiers either opted out or did not respond to our communications.
WPCNR: Is the County Health Department directing all school districts in Westchester to report new covid cases among students, teachers, staff?
Ms. FORTINO: Reporting of suspected or confirmed communicable diseases is mandated under the New York State Sanitary Code (10NYCRR 2.10,2.14). COVID is one of the communicable diseases required to be reported to local health departments by school nurses.
WPCNR: (The State Education Dept in August said school districts no longer had to report new cases to the state as they did last year ). But does the County Health Department still require districts to do so?
Ms. Fortino: Yes.
WPCNR: If the County Health Department is collecting the new case data, when will they release the first figures on school district numbers of new infections compared to last year?
Ms. FORTINO: The County Health Department will not be creating a school dashboard. Since labs are a mandated reporter, lab confirmed cases of COVID will still be reflected in the NYS COVID tracker. In addition the widespread availability of OTC antigen tests, will make tracking COVID more challenging.
WPCNR: When will the purifiers be delivered?
Ms. Fortino: The vendor is working with each district one-on-one to arrange delivery dates. Almost 3,000 units have already shipped and will be delivered in the coming days. Another ~1,500 are expected to ship before the end of this week, and the remaining ~1,000 will likely ship the following week.
WPCNR: Are the purifiers installed in class rooms and self-contained, plug ins (easy to install) ?
Yes, these are floor units that are simply plugged into a regular outlet. The control buttons are behind a locked panel to avoid accidental tampering, and the machine has sensors to automatically adjust based on room occupancy, air quality, etc.