UFT sets up hotlines to track and stem spread of flu outbreak
May 18, 2009 12:11 PM
The number of schools with unusually high numbers of students and staff with flu-like symptoms continues to grow, and the UFT is working with the DOE and the city to respond and take every precaution possible to stem the spread and protect the health of our school communities.
Accurate and current information is crucial to this effort and so the union has set up hotlines to both gather and disseminate the latest information. The union is asking its chapter leaders, the frontline eyes and ears of the union in the schools, to report the latest data and help minimize the spread of disease.
The UFT has also created an online reporting system, which makes it easier to submit this important data and to compile it. The union is asking chapter leaders to report online whenever possible.
The union has set up a hotline for every district in Queens, which has been hit the hardest, four additional hotlines for each of the other boroughs and citywide hotlines for Districts 75 and 79. The following are the hotline numbers:
| Queens District 24 | 212-701-9604 |
| Queens District 25 | 212-701-9605 |
| Queens District 26 | 212-701-9606 |
| Queens District 27 | 212-701-9607 |
| Queens District 28 | 212-701-9608 |
| Queens District 29 | 212-701-9609 |
| Queens District 30 | 212-701-9610 |
| Queens high schools | 212-701-9611 |
| Manhattan | 212-701-9600 |
| Bronx | 212-701-9601 |
| Brooklyn | 212-701-9602 |
| Staten Island | 212-701-9603 |
| District 75 citywide | 212-701-9612 |
| District 79 citywide | 212-701-9613 |
We are asking every chapter leader to report daily the following information:
- the number of students in their school
- the number of students absent today
- the number of students sent home today
- the total number of staff in their school
- the number of staff absent today
- the number of staff sent home today
- a brief description of the activity in the nurse’s office today.
The UFT is asking chapter leaders to report to the hotline on the situation in their schools daily until further notice.
The hotlines will also be updated several times a day to reflect the most recent information on school closings.
Please click here for the UFT’s special Web section on swine flu, including the latest protocols for schools.
