Oklahoma City Public Schools has released its return to school plan for the second semester.
In a letter sent to OKCPS families, students and staff on Friday Superintendent Dr. Sean McDaniel said students will continue distance learning for the first two weeks of the second semester.
Students will gradually return for in-person classes on the A/B schedule beginning January 19 with the younger students returning first, McDaniel said.
“These are hard decisions because every option has serious consequences. From the beginning we have said we would do what is safe and responsible, and OKCPS has never wavered from the health and safety of our students, families and staff being our top priority,” McDaniel wrote.
Paul Monies / Oklahoma Watch
As active coronavirus cases remain above 30,000 in Oklahoma, the state health department says its contact tracers are having to prioritize calls and will advise most people with confirmed cases to do their own contact tracing.
In addition, the state has shuttered a contact tracing call center in Oklahoma City paid for by federal CARES Act money. A related contract for additional temporary contact tracers continues but the Oklahoma State Department of Health is looking for additional funding to keep those positions in the new year. Weekly reports from this fall show just how far behind contact tracers and case investigators were getting as cases continued to rise.
The FDA is expected to quickly authorize Moderna s vaccine for emergency use.
A government advisory panel endorsed it Thursday. This comes as many Oklahomans question the vaccine.
The Oklahoma City-County Health Department tried to clear up those concerns.
By: Storme Jones
Oklahoma County first received federal COVID-19 relief funds on April 27. However, the battle for exactly how that money is spent continued Thursday as the clock to get it all out the door is running out of time.
The Oklahoma County Budget Board is made up of all three county commissioners, county treasurer, court clerk, county clerk, assessor, and sheriff. Thursday the panel heard dueling agenda items to spend the county’s remaining $9 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
A proposal by County Treasurer Butch Freeman would pump funds into an in-demand small business assistance program and fund a new county health software. The proposal by Commissioner Kevin Calvey would maneuver the money back to the Oklahoma County Detention Center.
By: Barry Mangold
OKLAHOMA CITY -
The Oklahoma City-County Health Department plans to construct a drive-thru facility for testing and vaccinations with the goal of opening as COVID-19 vaccines become available for the general public.
The facility “will certainly be one of the most important things we ever put on this campus,” said Dr. Patrick McGough, director of the OCCHD. “We’re really excited about it.”
Image Provided By: OCCHD
Image Provided By: OCCHD
The department’s board of health voted on Thursday in support of constructing the drive-thru facility and a warehouse next to its offices on Northeast 63rd Street, financed by up to $7 million in municipal bonds.