NEW YORK (AP) – Students can safely sit just 3 feet apart in the classroom as long as they wear masks, but the usual 6 feet should be kept apart during sporting events, gatherings, lunch or choir practice, the Centers for Disease Control and prevention said Friday when she relaxed COVID-19 guidelines.
The revised recommendations are a departure from the 6-foot standard that has severely limited the number of students that some schools can accommodate. Some places had to remove desks, make schedules, and take other steps to keep kids from each other.
Three feet “gives school districts greater flexibility to have more students over a long period of time,” said Kevin Quinn, director of maintenance and facilities at Mundelein High School in suburban Chicago.
In recent months, schools in some states have disregarded the CDC guidelines, using standard 3 feet. Studies of what happened in some of them helped the agency move, said Greta Massetti, who leads the CDC’s community intervention task force.
“We do not have the evidence that 6 feet are needed to maintain a low distribution,” she said. Also, younger children are less likely to become seriously ill from the coronavirus and not spread it as much as adults, and ‘it leaves us confident that 3 feet 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 to personal education.” She said personal training gives students not only ‘the training they need to pass, but also access to important social and mental health services.
The new guidance:
– Remove recommendations for plastic screens or other barriers between desks. Massetti said: “We do not have much evidence of its effectiveness in preventing transmission.
Provide at least 3 feet of space between desks in elementary schools, even in towns and cities where the community is widespread, as long as students and teachers wear masks and other precautions.
– The spacing can also be 3 feet in middle and high schools, as long as there is not a high distribution in the community. If so, the distance should be at least 6 feet.
The CDC said 6 feet should still be maintained in common areas, such as front porches in the school, and when masks cannot be worn, such as eating.
Students should also be kept 6 feet apart in situations where many people are talking, cheering or singing, all of whom can expel drops with the coronavirus. These include choir rehearsals, events and sporting events.
Teachers and other adults should stay 6 feet apart and away from students, the CDC said.
The CDC’s advice for 6-foot schools, issued last year, was the same standard applied to workplaces and other institutions. In contrast, the World Health Organization suggested that 1 meter – a little over 3 feet – was sufficient in schools. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, desks should be 3 feet apart and “ideally” 6 feet.
The CDC leadership has been problematic for many schools that have traditionally had 25, 30 or more children per classroom in closely grouped desks. Some schools have adopted complicated schedules. For example, half a class can sometimes come to school on days, and the other half on other days.
Some schools stopped using lockers and faltered when different grades could move between classes to prevent congestion in the halls, and it can be difficult to maintain any distance.
The Ridley school system in Philadelphia in the suburbs has taken such steps to comply with the 6-foot guideline. But the neighboring communities went with three feet, ‘and we do not see that the data really reflects a different distribution figure,’ says Lee Ann Wentzel, district superintendent.
Even before the CDC acted, the district decided to move to 3 feet distance next month. Wentzel said the change in CDC leadership will make it easier to explain and defend the decision.
A recent study in Massachusetts looked at students and staff members in schools who used the standard of 3 feet and those who had the six feet. No significant difference in infection rates was found.
Massetti said other research was also influential, including two studies released by the CDC on Friday. One from Utah found low coronavirus transmission rates among students who behaved well with masks and whose desks were only 3 feet apart. The other study, conducted in Missouri, showed a similar conclusion.
Yet the change at the CDC has experienced skepticism in some quarters.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the 1.6 million members’ union is reviewing the latest research, “but we are concerned that this change is driven by a lack of physical space rather than the hard science about aerosol exposure and transfer. “
Dr. Lawrence Kleinman, a professor of pediatrics and global urban public health at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said 3 feet is “probably safe” if schools do everything right – if everyone wears masks correctly and washes their hands at all times, and if ventilation is good. But he said that was unlikely.
“I will not send my child to a school that is 3 feet away,” said Kleinman, who has a 4-year-old daughter.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Scientific Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.