CDC Offer 5 Key COVID-19 Plans For Schools

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 13, 10:59AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

CDC Offer 5 Key COVID-19 Plans For Schools — © Scott Eisen / Getty Images News via Getty Images

Becker’s Hospitals Review, a major medical research source and critical screening house for COVID-19 data interpretation has recently reviewed new CDC data on COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

In a new article, titled “CDC releases school reopening guidelines, 5 key COVID-19 mitigation strategies”, Becker’s author Gabrielle Masson reviews plans for schools now that the CDC has given advice for re-openings.

There are three rules for safe openings, which she describes as “consistent implementation of layered mitigation strategies, indicators of community transmission, and phased mitigation and learning modes.” The first of these addresses the fact that scientists already have several means to measure future risk. Among them are hygiene, face covering, and social distancing. Indicators of community transmission range from infection rates to hospitalizations. Learning modes deal with whether classrooms are in person, or handled remotely.

Masson’s next point is the school openings need to be done in the context of the wider population. Some groups which include people of color and poor communities suffer more from the spread of COVID-19 than others. These factors need to be taken into account as plans are made to reopen schools.

Next is the decision of each community to put testing of teachers and students high on their lists of those who are tracked and tested. Otherwise, transmission can begin dangerously and detection of such a problem could happen later than necessary. This is a public policy decision.

[nativounit]

Following that, among the essentials for school reopening is whether proven tactics that lower the risk of spread are used within the schools themselves. Each of these is already well known to the public. They include the use of masks based on guidelines which currently include double masking when possible, six feet of physical distancing, hand-washing, and proper methods to offset spread via covering sneezing and coughing, the cleaning of school facilities, contact tracing, and isolation or quarantine when necessary. To be done best, these need to be done in connection with local healthcare officials.

Finally, schools need to be vigilant about the fact that the CDC, and other authorities, update guidelines. The best evidence of that is it was just done again for schools.

Click here to read COVID-19: The County Where The Most People Are Dying

Click here to read COVID-19: The State With The Biggest Vaccination Problem

[recirclink id=837556][wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.