Hochul orders millions of testing kits in effort to keep kids in classrooms

Gov. Hochul is focusing on home testing kits, and keeping kids in the classroom after winter break. She says both are related.

It comes as New York state hit another record of nearly 29,000 new COVID infections in one day. That’s five records in six days.

Hochul says the more tests we can get to school districts, the more vaccinated kids can stay in school during a COVID outbreak.

She said the state has ordered five million new testing kits due by New Year’s Eve.

She says the testing kits will help keep vaccinated kids in school, even after they’re exposed.

Two million of the kits will be in the hands of school districts to send home with kids.

She says the number of infections in kids has been low, even with the surge in omicron cases.

"We want to make sure after this holiday break that on the 3rd of January or shortly thereafter, that kids can safely come back to school," said Hochul. "We saw how devastating this experiment was in having children work remotely, and the stress was on the teachers and the parents. We just can’t set these kids back again," said Hochul.

The governor also says despite the omicron variant surge in New York City, it seems like only a small number of kids have been infected.

MORE INFORMATION: New York State coronavirus dashboard | Vaccine tracker