With the start of the school year rapidly approaching, we wanted to reach out and provide some thoughts and resources to help our patients and their families navigate this as safely as possible. The recent rise in COVID-19 cases, especially the Delta variant that has infected children at a higher rate than the previous waves of the virus, makes this particularly important.
The first thing to do is get vaccinated if you are not. If you have kids 12 or older who are not vaccinated yet, get them vaccinated. WellBeing’s staff are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to keep our patients and families safe. You trust us to care for your children from the moment they enter the world. You trust us to monitor their health and development. You trust us to treat their acute illnesses and injuries. So please trust us at this moment when so much is at stake.
We also encourage you to wear a mask anytime you are in public, even if you are vaccinated. Most people who catch a breakthrough case have mild symptoms. However, you could unknowingly make someone else sick—including your children. It is a concern to see how many children who are too young to be vaccinated are out in public unmasked.
As the start of the school year approaches, Governor Hochul has announced that universal masking is required in NYS schools. We applaud this decision as a simple way to prevent the spread of COVID. While each of our local school districts may have some differences in their approaches to re-opening this fall, everyone is working to keep our kids safe following the recommendations from the New York State Education Department. The complete NYSED guidelines are available here.
We understand this re-opening is likely to be creating anxiety in both children and their parents and caregivers. We have collected the following resources that we hope will assist you at this challenging time.
If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to us. We can do this! We can get to the other side, but we must be willing to think and act as a community that relies on each other for our survival.
We have the power to overcome this. Wear a mask. Get vaccinated. Trust Science.