New York City will introduce weekly coronavirus testing at all public schools starting next week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday, as officials try to strengthen safety protocols.

The city’s powerful teachers’ union called on Sunday for the city to conduct weekly surveillance testing in schools, instead of the current policy of testing students every other week.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat in his final year in office, also announced a change to quarantine rules: Unvaccinated students will not have to quarantine if they had close contact with a student who tested positive — if they were masked and three feet apart. The announcement signaled a relaxing of the previous quarantine rules, which required unvaccinated close contacts of a student who tested positive to quarantine for 10 days.

The new rules are set to take effect on Sept. 27, the same day that a vaccine mandate for teachers and other school staff is expected to go into effect.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, wrote a letter to Mr. de Blasio on Sunday calling on the city to strengthen its testing policy.

“While so far our public schools have successfully reopened, I am concerned that this year’s reduced frequency of Covid testing means that thousands of children will spend days in classrooms without the early warning system that last year made our schools among the safest places in the community,” Mr. Mulgrew said in the letter.

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