Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said Sunday that President Biden's stimulus bill needs to be passed in order for the nation's schools to be able to reopen safely in the pandemic.
Officials from the CDC and Education Department outlined overall reopening rules, as well as school-specific ideas like teaching in the cafeteria.
Students at New York’s West Brooklyn Community High School listen to questions posed by their principal during a current events quiz and pizza party in the school’s cafeteria last October. (AP Photo/Kathy Willen, File)
(CN) Safely reopening schools, as defined by top U.S. health officials, means ensuring there’s little to no transmission of Covid-19 within them. With a new playbook offering specific, science-based guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to help schools achieve that goal.
California to expand vaccine eligibility to millions with pre-existing conditions
From CNN s Stephanie Becker and Cheri Mossburg
A health care worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination site in Las Mesa, California, on February 11. Bing Guan/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The US state of California is adding millions of people to its Covid-19 vaccination priority list, including residents “at high risk with developmental and other disabilities and those with “serious underlying health conditions.
The plan, outlined by state health officials in a briefing Friday, will begin March 15 and allow cancer patients, pregnant women, and other disabled individuals to join health care workers, seniors, teachers, and farm staff in line for a vaccine. The expansion could add as many as 6 million more Californians to the priority list.
CLEANING AND MAINTAINING HEALTHY FACILITIES
AND DIAGNOSTIC AND RAPID AND EFFICIENT-CONTACT TRACING, IN COMBINATION WITH ISOLATION AND QUARANTINE, AND IN COLLABORATION WITH THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
WHILE EACH OF THESE, FIVE STRATEGIES IS IMPORTANT TO PREVENT AND REDUCE THE SPREAD OF COVID-19, AND TO SUPPORT SAFE, SCHOOL REOPENING, CDC RECOMMENDS PRIORITIZING THE FIRST TWO.
UNIVERSAL AND CORRECT USE OF MASKS, THAT SHOULD BE REQUIRED FOR ALL STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND STAFF. AND PHYSICAL DISTANCING OF AT LEAST 6 FEET BETWEEN PEOPLE WITH COHORTING OR PODDING OF STUDENTS TO MINIMIZE EXPOSURE ACROSS THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT.
THESE TWO STRATEGIES ARE INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, IN AREAS
THAT HAVE HIGH-COMMUNITY SPREAD OF COVID-19. WHICH RIGHT NOW IS THE VAST MAJORITY OF COMMUNITIES IN THE UNITED STATES.WE KNOW THAT MOST CLUSTERS IN THE SCHOOL SETTING HAVE OCCURRED WHEN THERE ARE BREACHES IN MASK WEARING.