NEW YORK (AP) – Students can safely sit just 3 feet away in the classroom, provided they wear masks, but the usual 6 feet away from each other at sporting events, assemblies, lunch must be kept or coral practice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines.
The revised recommendations represent a departure from the 6-foot standard, which has dramatically limited the number of students that some schools can accommodate. Some places had to remove tables, schedule schedules and take other measures to keep children apart.
Three feet “gives school districts greater flexibility to have more students over an extended period of time,” said Kevin Quinn, director of maintenance and facilities at Mundelein High School, in the suburb of Chicago.
In recent months, schools in some states have disregarded the CDC guidelines, using 3 feet as a standard. Studies of what happened in some of them helped to influence the agency, said Greta Massetti, who heads the CDC’s community intervention task force.
“We don’t really have evidence that 6 feet is needed to keep the spread low,” she said. In addition, younger children are less likely to become seriously ill with the coronavirus and do not seem to transmit it as much as adults, and “it gives us confidence that one meter of physical distance is safe”.
CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the revised recommendations are a “roadmap to help schools reopen safely and remain open for face-to-face education”. She said that face-to-face school gives students not only “the education they need to succeed”, but access to essential social and mental health services.
The new orientation:
– Removes recommendations for plastic guards or other barriers between tables. “We don’t have much evidence of its effectiveness” in preventing transmission, Massetti said.
– Advises at least 3 feet of space between desks in elementary schools, even in towns and cities where community diffusion is high, as long as students and teachers wear masks and take other precautions.
– It says that the spacing can also be 3 feet in elementary and high schools, as long as there is not a high level of dissemination in the community. If any, the distance must be at least 6 feet.
The CDC said that 6 feet should still be kept in common areas, such as school lobbies, and when masks cannot be used, such as when eating.
In addition, students should be kept 6 feet away in situations where there are many people talking, cheering or singing, all of whom can expel droplets containing the coronavirus. This includes choir practice, assemblies and sporting events.
Teachers and other adults should continue to stand 1.8m from each other and from students, said the CDC.
The CDC’s 6-foot board for schools, issued last year, was the same standard applied to workplaces and other environments. In contrast, the World Health Organization suggested that 1 meter – just over 3 feet – was sufficient in schools. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that tables should be 3 feet apart and “ideally” 6 feet.
CDC orientation was problematic for many schools that traditionally had 25, 30 or more children per classroom in clustered desks. Some schools have adopted complicated schedules. For example, half the class may go to school on some days and the other half on other days.
Some schools stopped using lockers and staggered when different grades could switch between classes to avoid crowding in the corridors, where keeping any distance can be difficult.
The Ridley school system, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, has taken steps like this to comply with the 6-foot guideline. But the surrounding communities were left with 3 feet, “and we are not seeing the data really reflect a different rate of spread,” said Lee Ann Wentzel, district superintendent.
Even before the CDC acted, the district decided to move to a 3-foot gap next month. Wentzel said the change in the CDC’s orientation will make it easier to explain and defend the decision.
A recent study in Massachusetts looked at students and staff at schools that used the 3-foot pattern and those who had the 6-foot pattern. He found no significant difference in infection rates.
Massetti said other research was also influential, including two studies that the CDC released on Friday. One in Utah found low rates of coronavirus transmission among students who did a good job wearing masks and whose wallets were just 10 feet away. The other study, done in Missouri, pointed to a similar conclusion.
Even so, the change in the CDC was met with skepticism in some sectors.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that the 1.6 million union is reviewing the latest research, “but we are concerned that this change was driven by a lack of physical space, and not by rigid science about exposure to aerosol transmission. “
Dr. Lawrence Kleinman, professor of pediatrics and global urban public health at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said 90 centimeters is “probably safe” if schools are doing everything right – if everyone is wearing masks correctly all the time and washing hands, and if the ventilation is good. But he said this is unlikely.
“I am not going to send my son to a school that is 3 feet away,” said Kleinman, who has a 4-year-old daughter.
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