CDC recommends full reopening of schools in the United States: vaccinated teachers and students will not have to wear masks

Vaccinated teachers and students will not need to wear masks inside schools. That was determined on Friday by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it announced its new COVID-19 guidelines, considerably less stringent than those in effect.

The changes are part of a national immunization campaign in which children up to 12 years of age can be immunized, as well as a general decrease in hospitalizations and deaths from this disease. “We are at a new stage in the pandemic that we are all excited about,” so now is the time to update the guidelines, said Erin Sauber-Schatz, who heads the CDC task force that prepares recommendations to protect Americans from COVID-19.

For the time being, the country’s main public health agency does not advise schools to require vaccination of teachers and eligible children. And it doesn’t offer advice on how teachers can find out which students are vaccinated or how parents will know which teachers are vaccinated.

This is likely to create conflict in schools, said Elizabeth Stuart, professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University who has children in elementary and middle schools. “It would be a very strange dynamic, from a social point of view, for some children to wear masks and others not.. And keep track of that? Teachers shouldn’t have to know which children should wear masks, ”he said.

Another possible headache is that according to the CDC, schools must continue to separate students and their desks within three feet of each other in classrooms. But the agency stressed that space should not be a barrier for children to return to school. And he said there is no need for distancing between fully vaccinated students or staff.

All of this can be difficult to apply, which is why the CDC advises schools to make the decisions they think are best.Sauber-Schatz said. The biggest questions will arise in high schools, where some students can be vaccinated and others cannot. By sorting out which ones are vaccinated and which aren’t too bulky, managers might choose to maintain a mask policy for everyone.

“The guide is written to allow flexibility at the local level.”Sauber-Schatz said. In fact, in some of the country’s largest school districts, widespread use of masks is expected to continue this fall.

In Detroit public schools, everyone will have to wear, unless all students in the class are vaccinated. Philadelphia will require all students and staff in public schools to wear face masks inside buildings, even if they are vaccinated. Instead, it won’t be required in Houston schools.

At the start of the pandemic, health authorities feared schools could become cauldrons of coronavirus contagion and it started epidemics in the community. But studies have shown that they tend to have less transmission than the surrounding community when certain preventative measures are followed.

In March, The CDC has stopped recommending that children and their desks be five feet apart, reducing the distance to one meter and abandoning the use of plastic shields. In May, the agency said Americans in general don’t have to be so careful about masks and outdoor distance, and fully vaccinated people don’t need them in most situations. This change has been incorporated into the updated guidelines for summer camps and now for schools.

(With AP information)

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