New York City is renewing efforts to get more public school children vaccinated against COVID, with new pop-up clinics at schools where rates are low, and an information blitz consisting of robocalls to parents, fliers sent home in backpacks, and town halls with public health officials.
The push, announced Thursday, comes as child vaccination uptake has stalled while recently released data shows gaping disparities among schools. Just over half of students are fully vaccinated.
In elementary schools, 34% of students are vaccinated. The rate ticks up to almost 52% in middle schools, and over 57% in high schools, where students have been eligible to receive the vaccine for much longer. That is according to a Chalkbeat analysis of city data from Feb. 22.