10% of each MPS school will be tested for COVID-19 every other week
Starting this week, Milwaukee Public Schools will begin testing students and staff for COVID-19.
MILWAUKEE - Starting this week, Milwaukee Public Schools will begin testing students and staff for COVID-19. This comes as children in grades 4 to 8 return to schools on Monday, April 19.
Ten percent of each school will be randomly tested for COVID-19 every other week. Students will self-administer the nasal swab test.
MPS said pool testing works as follows:
Each child is given something like a Q-tip to swab their own nose
Up to 25 of those Q-tips are put into a tube
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Just over 20% of people are vaccinated in Milwaukee, but Mayor Tom Barrett stressed that number needs to be much higher before the city can return to normal.
Milwaukee county officials are concerned with the low rate of vaccinations in the city of Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett stressed the importance of people being vaccinated, saying it plays an important role in getting life back to normal. As of Thursday, he said the city’s vaccination rate is just over 20%, but needs to be much higher in order to get back to normal.
“We have seen an increase in our cases. It s my hope that we re at a plateau right now, but I want to stress over and over again that we have an adequate supply of vaccinations right now,” he said.
The Milwaukee Health Department opted NOT to revise the current public health order on Friday, April 16 despite the fact that the city's rate of COVID-19 cases continues to increase.
/ This sign near the exit doors of the Wisconsin Center thanks people for getting a COVID-19 vaccine shot.
The COVID-19 vaccine supply in Milwaukee has improved to the point where Mayor Tom Barrett is urging eligible people to come and get a shot.
This week, everyone in Wisconsin, 16 and older, became eligible.
Barrett said folks could just walk up and get vaccinated Thursday at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee, and he expects that status to continue there for at least a couple days.
But that s not all, according to the mayor. There are walkups available at North Division, at South Division. And so, if we re going to defeat this, or, I should say, when we defeat this COVID-19 pandemic, it will be after we have hundreds of thousands of our residents vaccinated. So, please join the fight, said Barrett.