Tyler Clifford, Tim McLaughlin

BOSTON (Reuters). Students from Boston and Chicago are planning walkouts Friday in an effort to press officials for remote learning. This is in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases caused by Omicron, which disrupts schools across the United States.

A petition calling for remote options was started online by a senior at a Boston high-school. It claimed that schools were a COVID-19 breeding area and had more than 8000 signatures on Friday morning.

Boston Student Advisory Council demanded a nationwide walkout Friday morning.

Ash O’Brien (10th grade student at Boston Latin School) left school on Friday with approximately a dozen other students. He said that he felt unsafe staying inside.

He said, “I live in a home with my grandparents,” who is immune-compromised. “So I’m not going to school and risking getting sick, so I want to come home to my grandparents.”

Radical Youth Alliance in Chicago is asking students to march out to protest the district’s central headquarters on Friday, July 15.

“We want safety. We also demand care!” On Twitter, the group claimed.

After a week without classes after the standoff over COVID protocol between Chicago teachers and school districts, students returned to Chicago schools Wednesday. Teachers union members ended the walkout by agreeing to tighten safeguards.

Students at several New York City Schools staged an earlier walkout in protest of what they consider inadequate safety measures. Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, stated on Thursday that the administration would consider a temporary remote option to teach students who remain at home.

Burbio reports that nearly 5,000 schools in the US have shut down for one or more days this week because of the pandemic. Parents are left exhausted trying to find COVID-19 policies to help them navigate the chaos.

A Reuters analysis shows that the Omicron wave appears to be slowing down in those areas where it was first hit. New cases in Northeastern, Southern and Western states have increased by 5% over the seven-day prior, compared with the preceding week. The number of cases in Western states has increased 89% compared to the week before.

The United States still has nearly 800,000. new infections per day. There are also record numbers of COVID-19-infected patients being admitted to hospitals.

Joe Biden, the President of the United States announced Thursday that 1,000 soldiers will be deployed to military hospitals next week in six states. In addition to this announcement, the U.S. government has ordered 500 million additional COVID-19 home test to support demand.

In a setback for the president, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the Biden administration’s vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses, ruling that the policy overstepped executive authority. However, the court upheld a similar mandate to healthcare workers.