New York City students returned to public school classrooms one week ago, and health officials say COVID cases are already increasing. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul says that New Yorkers could have access to the new vaccine as soon as the end of this week, something medical professionals recommend anyone six months and older do.

"I think this is really important, especially as we see the increase about COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rate," said Dr. Rami Nakeshbandi, chief quality officer at SUNY Downstate. 

Nakeshbandi, who has been working closely with COVID patients, believes COVID is changing again.

"The virus usually changes its structure, so they infect faster and become more viral with time and every few months and every year they change their structure and become resistant to the previous version of the vaccine," Nakeshbandi said.

The Department of Education added that the way city schools are tracking the number of COVID cases that arise throughout the 2023-2024 school year also is changing, 

"The safety of our students and staff is our top priority. Cases are no longer reported by schools. DOHMH continues to closely monitor cases among school-aged children." a spokesperson from the NYC Department of Education said. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration has approved both new versions of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna's COVID vaccines.