(New Orleans – January 12, 2021) – NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) and LCMC Children's Hospital of New Orleans (CHNOLA) celebrated another milestone today in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by announcing the first round of vaccines for school nurses and an increase in COVID-19 testing options for the school community.
Four school nurses received the first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine today at Children's Hospital in Uptown. NOLA-PS and CHNOLA are in the process of registering the rest of the approximately 80 public school nurses who care for NOLA-PS students to be vaccinated in the coming days.
"School nurses are often the first health expert children see in this pandemic,"said Orleans Parish School Board Ethan Ashley. "They're the healthcare workers who've been rolling up their sleeves in our schools, and they are indispensable in our fight to keep our students and staff safe."
"This first step to vaccinate our nurses is a hopeful sign that this is truly the beginning of the end of this pandemic," NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. said. "In the meantime, we are very proud of the partnerships we've built to help protect our community of schools as we get through this, together."
LCMC Children's Hospital was instrumental in making sure our school nurses received the vaccine.
"School nurses routinely come into contact with children, teachers, and staff experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and are at increased risk of contracting the virus," said Dr. Leron Finger, Chief Quality Officer at Children's Hospital New Orleans. "As they work to keep COVID-19 at bay within our schools and mitigate community spread, the COVID-19 vaccine will provide them with the protection needed to keep them, their students, and their families safe."
In addition, this week, NOLA-PS, with funding provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF), and a partnership with the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), plans to launch three mobile testing units that will visit every participating school to provide routine polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Ultimately, the mobile units' testing is designed to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 through early identification of positive cases and to increase on-site testing options for our community of schools.
The mobile units are planned to administer tests, and they handle the reporting of results to individuals or families, as well as the state. Their tests are free and an individual's insurance will not be charged.
As part of its testing strategy, NOLA-PS is also distributing rapid antigen diagnostic tests, provided by LDH. These rapid tests will be used to test symptomatic students and staff, as well as close contacts of an individual diagnosed with COVID-19. The tests don't require lab processing and results are ready in 15 minutes. Having access to such timely results will help continue to prevent the spread of the virus within our school community.
"I can't hardly wait to get back to parades and festivals, and seeing my friends and extended families," NOLA-PS school nurse Venus Parker said. "I want to see the kids in our city safely return to school in person so they can continue to build our culture and community. And, I believe this vaccine is the fastest and best way to make all of this happen."
As the COVID-19 vaccine distribution continues to roll out, NOLA-PS, The City of New Orleans and CHNOLA ThriveKids will host a virtual town hall to answer questions on Wednesday, Jan. 13. This meeting is to provide vaccine-related information to NOLA-PS educators and school support staff.
To learn more about COVID-19 vaccine distribution for school team members, schools are asked to email thrivekids@lcmchealth.org or call 504.894.5109.
For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine, visit www.lcmchealth.org/coronavirus/.
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About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district's administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 76 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.
For more information, visit www.nolapublicschools.com. For updates, follow NOLA Public Schools on Facebook @NOLAPublicSchools, Instagram @nolaps and Twitter @NOLAPSchools.