The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday that U.S. schools can reopen safely even if teachers have not received the coronavirus vaccine, while the leading US infection specialist supported the idea of use two face masks.
As some teachers’ unions are reluctant to resume face-to-face education before teachers are vaccinated, the director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, said: “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools.”
And Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease official, said “there is no harm” if people want to wear a “double mask” for additional protection against Covid-19.
Wearing one mask on top of another is not official government advice and Walensky said at a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Wednesday that more data will come on the value of the so-called double mask.
Jeff Zients, chief of the task force and Joe Biden’s coronavirus czar, noted that the pace of vaccinations was accelerating after a very difficult start to the distribution and administration program for the vaccine in late December under Trump’s administration.
He said the Biden administration has reached a point where the average daily doses of seven days administered are now averaging just over 1.3 million injections per day from January 27 to February 2.
“We are on track to achieve the president’s goal of 100 meters of kick in 100 days,” said Zients on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, new cases of Covid-19 and hospitalizations appear to be on a downward trend in the US.
However, Walensky warned that new variants of Covid-19 emerging across the country could threaten this positive moment.
Walensky cited data from the CDC that show that social distance and wearing a mask significantly reduce the spread of the virus in school settings.
Zients asked Congress to approve additional funding to ensure that schools have the necessary resources to support the reopening.
Biden has pledged to ensure that almost all primary and secondary schools reopen for face-to-face classes within the first 100 days of his administration.
Teachers are prioritized as “essential workers” in CDC vaccination plans, although many have yet to receive the doses, as the country continues to face a shortage of vaccine supply.
The tension between the rocky launch of the vaccine and the reopening of schools, however, is palpable. On Wednesday, the city of San Francisco is suing its own school district to try to open school doors amid the pandemic.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera, with the support of Mayor London Breed, announced that he has sued the San Francisco Board of Education and San Francisco’s unified school district as a last resort to save what remains of the academic year.
“Not a single student at the public school in San Francisco set foot in his classroom in 347 days,” Herrera said at a news conference, calling it shameful and also illegal. “More than 54,000 students in San Francisco are suffering. They are being turned into Zoom-bies by the online school. Enough is enough. “
The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California teachers are next in line for the Covid-19 vaccine, and some have started taking vaccines in rural areas.
Meanwhile, with the Super Bowl football season climaxing on Sunday, Fauci asked not to attend parties.
He told people to watch the Super Bowl at home, inside his own home, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Elsewhere, the federal government is opening two coronavirus vaccination sites in eastern Oakland and eastern Los Angeles, two of the most affected communities in California, which is suffering severely from the Covid crisis.
The facilities will be serviced mainly by officials from the Department of Defense, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Zients called these sites “just the beginning” of the Biden government’s effort to accelerate the pace of vaccinations, especially in areas that suffer the greatest impact from disease and death.
New York City health commissioner Dave Chokshi reported that he had been infected with the coronavirus.
Chokshi said he was recently tested, received a positive diagnosis and has mild symptoms.
He appeared in public service announcements urging New Yorkers to follow coronavirus protocols for wearing masks and maintaining social distance.