CDC Releases Guidance for Reopening Schools and Businesses

Recently the Center for Disease Control circulated  detailed guidance for reopening schools and businesses that have been closed in the corona-virus pandemic.The documents include specific direction for reopening child care centers, schools, businesses, restaurants and other public venues. Additionally more detailed advice for mass transit is suggested such as encouraging social distancing by the addition of floor decals or colored tape to ensure people remain six feet apart.

There is an extensive blueprint for containing the disease at federal and state levels through contact tracing and monitoring for outbreaks - capabilities that large parts of the country still do not have in place.

After much reading, it appears that the majority of the states have yet to meet much of the basic criteria for reopening originally set out by the White House, including indicating a 14-day decline in coronavirus cases and recording a significant ramp up in testing. I would venture to say that fewer of the states have plans in place to create the kind of contact tracing network that the CDC in its guidance called "a core disease control measure."

The White House has encouraged a fast reopening of the United States over concerns about the economic toll of a extended period of lock-down, handing much of the responsibility for managing the public health response to individual states. What about the faith-based communities like churches? Will they receive some type of guidance in order to reopen?

Both state and federal officials have continued to struggle in order to collect consistent data on the virus's spread, further complicating efforts to coordinate a nationwide response. While testing overall has surged over the past week or so, several states well into their reopening have yet to hit their own testing targets.

(Source) Center for Disease Control