CDC says schools should require mask wearing, not vaccination, to safely reopen

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that mandating mask wearing and physical distancing of at least 6 feet are the most important steps to safely reopen schools for in-person learning during the pandemic.

The guidance that was developed in coordination with the Education Department comes at the direction of President Joe Biden, who set a goal of reopening most K-8 schools in his first 100 days in office.

The CDC told schools they should prioritize mask wearing and physical distancing above all else while emphasizing that hand washing, cleaning in the building, robust contact tracing and isolating anyone exposed to the coronavirus or showing symptoms were also important to safe reopenings.

“CDC is not mandating that schools reopen. These recommendations simply provide schools a long needed road map for how to do so safely under different levels of disease in the community,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on a call with reporters.

Schools in areas with low transmission of the virus can reopen for full in-person instruction with universal mask wearing and other preventative strategies, the CDC said, acknowledging that the vast majority of schools do not currently fall in that category.

But in areas where transmission rates are moderate to high, schools should enforce physical distancing and reduce sports and other extracurricular activities, the CDC said.

In areas with substantial rates of coronavirus infections, the CDC recommended schools have reduced attendance or hybrid learning, which mixes virtual learning with in-person instruction.

Schools in high transmission communities were strongly encouraged to switch to virtual-only instruction in middle and high schools, unless they can strictly adhere to prevention methods and have few known cases.

The Education Department in a handbook to help schools apply the guidance recommended putting students into groups that stay together with the same teacher for the entire school day. It also said that schools should make use of cafeterias and auditoriums for classes to ensure physical distancing and rethink classroom schedules to limit foot traffic.

While much of the guidance to schools is in line with previous CDC recommendations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, education groups said it was the first time they had received definitive direction from the federal government to mandate prevention strategies like mask wearing and physical distancing and when to implement hybrid learning.

“While they had it before as a mitigation strategy, the way they talk about it in this iteration of their guidelines is much more forceful,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said.

BIDEN’S PLAN

The White House came under widespread criticism this week from Republicans after it said the president’s definition of safe school reopenings was at least one day of in-person instruction per week at more than half of the nation’s schools.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later said that one day a week “is not the ceiling,” it is “the bar we’re trying to leap over and exceed” and that Biden is committed to getting schools open five days a week.

Biden included $130 billion for schools in his $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal to Congress to help them buy personal protective equipment, reduce class sizes and make other adjustments to keep classrooms safe and meet his reopening goal. He requested another $50 billion from Congress in the rescue plan for an expansion of COVID-19 testing, including at schools.

In a statement after the CDC guidelines were released, Biden reiterated the request and said he would task his education secretary, when confirmed, “to safely accelerate the process of school reopenings.”

“As many states continue to follow the CDC’s recommendation to prioritize teachers for vaccination, I urge all states to follow suit,” Biden added.

Teachers are a high priority for vaccination in most states, but vaccines have been slow to reach them.

The CDC in its new guidance said states “should consider giving high priority to teachers in early phases of vaccine distribution” and minimize barriers so they can be vaccinated early.

“Access to vaccination should not be considered a condition for reopening schools for in-person instruction,” the CDC said.

Even as vaccinations increase nationwide, preventative methods will still need to be employed, Walensky told reporters, noting concerns over mutations of the virus that have emerged.

“We do not know the durability of vaccinations. We don’t know whether we’re going to need booster vaccinations. And I do believe that we’re going to need to continue at least some of these mitigation strategies for some time,” she said.

TESTING STRATEGY

The CDC also told schools they can incorporate coronavirus testing, which still lags in many parts of the country, into their reopening plans. It recommended that schools relying on testing to reopen, screen educators and school staff at least once a week. Students in moderate, substantial and high transmission areas should also be tested weekly.

CDC officials said that coronavirus testing is not required for schools to safely reopen.

“As it becomes available, we believe it would be yet another layer of protection. And that is why we’ve advocated for it when it’s possible, but we don’t believe it to be necessary to make it safe,” Walensky said. “We know that it’s possible to be safe, it can be safe, it will be safe when all of these other key mitigation strategies are followed.”

The Rockefeller Foundation, which operates a pilot program for coronavirus testing in schools with the Health and Human Services Department, said it plans to present schools that want to employ testing with a detailed strategy next week.

Andrew Sweet, managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation’s COVID-19 initiative, said the organization would be releasing a step-by-step guide that incorporates lessons learned from the pilot program for use along with the CDC guidance.

Rockefeller recommends testing teachers and staff twice a week and students once a week, which Sweet said is necessary because children are not eligible to receive coronavirus vaccines.

“If you are going to reopen the schools, and you have this issue of the variants and you continue to have high cases of asymptomatic spread, you’re not going to be able to reopen schools without a strong testing approach and a strategy that works and has been approved by the federal government,” Sweet said.