COLUMBUS – Nine Columbus City Schools switched to remote learning Thursday because of staffing shortages as the state’s largest district battles with a surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus and calls from its teachers to hit the pause button on in-person learning.
Superintendent Dr. Talisa Dixon says district officials are committed to keeping schools open as the union representing its more than 4,200 teachers called for a two-week break to navigate the worst of the latest COVID-19 surge caused by the omicron variant.
The Columbus Education Association Wednesday released an open letter to Dixon, signed by more than 2,800 of its members, on her to “immediately institute a two-week temporary remote learning pause to get us through the worst of the current COVID-19 Omicron surge.”
Omicron causes continued rise in unemployment claims
An upsurge in first-time claims for unemployment benefits in Ohio and nationwide indicates that the omicron variant is having an impact on the job market, which has bounced strongly from last year’s coronavirus recession.
Ohioans filed 17,469 initial traditional unemployment claims last week, the fourth straight week of increases and a number that is 41.4% higher than the week before, according to data the Ohio Department of job and Family Services shared with the U.S. Department of Labor Thursday.
The 57,157 continued traditional unemployment claims was a 17% increase over the number filed during the week that ended on Jan 1.
The total number of traditional claims filed last week was 74,626, 22% more than the number processed during the week of Dec. 12-18.
Ohio’s unemployment rate in November was 4.8%, compared to the 4.2% national unemployment rate in November.
Nationwide, unemployment benefit applications, a proxy for layoffs, have now risen four of the last five weeks.
Test kits delayed
The state says schools, colleges and universities will get first crack at COVID-19 tests when they become more widely available.
There has been a delay in the shipment of more than 800,000 testing kits amid a nationwide shortage.
The Ohio Department of Health ordered 1.2 million rapid Abbott BinaxNow at-home antigen tests kits for January but only 400,000 have been received.