Judge Says New York Prisoners Must Be Offered Covid Vaccines

The New York Times: New York Must Offer Vaccine To All Prisoners Immediately, Judge Rules
New York must immediately begin to offer Covid vaccines to all incarcerated people in the state’s prisons and jails, a judge ruled on Monday, making the state one of few in the nation to provide doses to such a broad population behind bars. The order, the first involving any of the country’s largest correctional systems, comes as the coronavirus continues to roar through facilities in New York. At least 1,100 people living behind prison walls have tested positive for the virus since the start of last month, and five have died. (Closson, 3/29)

The Wall Street Journal: HHS Flags Covid-19 Aid Paid To California Clinic
Federal officials have flagged to investigators payments to a California outpatient clinic that received more government funds for treating uninsured Covid-19 patients than all but one medical provider in the U.S., a person familiar with the matter said. Elite Care Medical Group Inc. has received about $81 million under a relief program meant to ease financial strains on hospitals and doctors caring for Covid-19 patients who can’t pay their own bills, according to government data updated March 25. The Department of Health and Human Services reimburses providers for their care, including emergency room visits and the use of ventilators, at rates set for Medicare patients. (Evans, 3/29)

AP: Arizona Senate Revokes Mask Mandate After Governor's Action
The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate voted Monday to rescind its mandatory mask policy and the House speaker made the same move on his own authority. The Senate vote on the rules designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus got no support from minority Democrats. All 16 Republicans voted for the rule change. Face masks are now optional, and members continue to have the option of voting from their offices. (Christie, 3/29)

The Washington Post: New Accounts Detail How New York Health Officials Were Told To Prioritize Coronavirus Testing Of People Connected To Andrew Cuomo
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s relatives and other well-connected New Yorkers were among those given preferential treatment at state coronavirus testing centers. State troopers were on standby to rush their samples to a lab to be expedited. And those with priority status got results within hours or a day compared to a wait of up to a week that other New Yorkers faced at the time. Seven individuals with firsthand knowledge of testing practices said that some people with access to power were able to largely bypass the overburdened resources available to the general public when the pandemic first gripped New York last year. (Brittain, Dawsey and Ellison, 3/30)

And on school reopenings —

Politico: 'Boogers Down': Biden’s Bid To Reopen Schools May Hinge On ‘Pooled’ Testing
The Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief law is steering $10 billion toward developing a national school coronavirus testing strategy as its latest bid to reopen schools. That plan is still in flux but some attention has turned to the practice of “pooled” testing that uses a collection of swabs from a fixed group of kids attending classes together. The process is meant to limit the spread of a potential outbreak while minimizing the costs of the frequent large-scale testing needed to keep the disease in check. Pooled testing can extend testing capacity by testing groups of samples at once rather than each person individually. If a pool sample comes back positive, each individual in the pool is then tested. (Quilantan, 3/29)

The New York Times: Schools In Long Beach, Calif., Start Reopening This Week
Elementary students returned to classrooms in Long Beach, Calif., on Monday and campuses from Los Angeles to Boston prepared for significant expansions of in-person instruction as a majority of the nation’s districts have now begun to reopen school buildings, many of which have been closed for more than a year. On Monday, Burbio, which monitors some 1,200 districts including the largest 200 in the country, reported that 53.1 percent of students were in schools offering daily, in-person classes, and that for the first time, the proportion of students attending school virtually or in hybrid classes had dropped. (Hubler, 3/29)

The New York Times: In San Francisco, Turmoil Over Reopening Schools Turns A City Against Itself
The pandemic has brought grinding frustrations for parents, educators and students across the country. But perhaps no place has matched San Francisco in its level of infighting, public outrage and halting efforts to reopen schools. In February, the city sued its own school system, which has been entirely remote for a year, and board of education, charging they were violating state law by not resuming in-person instruction. (Fuller and Taylor, 3/29)

AP: Tennessee Gov Revives K-12 Mental Health Trust Fund Push
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is reviving a proposal to put $250 million into a trust fund that would help expand mental health services for school-aged children. The Republican announced the plan Monday at a news conference alongside fellow GOP leaders in the Legislature. Lee proposed the idea in early 2020, but removed it and other items from his budget plan when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. (3/30)