Thousands of schools in the United States postponed the scheduled school openings this week after the holiday break or switched to online learning as the Omicron variant continued to surge.

In other school districts, officials pressed on with reopening plans, including in New York City, where one in every three COVID-19 tests over the last week returned positive. According to the Mayo Clinic, on average 18% of tests are returning positive across the country.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams intended to keep the school system open despite the spike in cases. Cities like Milwaukee, Cleveland and Detroit have either switched to online learning or have canceled school altogether this week, due to staff shortages and Omicron concerns.

The pace of Omicron spread has created chaos, with the number of new cases doubling in the last seven days to an average of 418,000 in a day, revealed a Reuters tally… (Reuters, January 4, 2022)