CDC is 'prepared to work with every school district' for safe reopenings, director says in coronavirus briefing

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield on Wednesday said the agency is “prepared to work with every school district” to create a safe reopening this fall for students amid the coronavirus pandemic.

During the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Wednesday, Redfield said the CDC has outlined "a number of strategies” for schools across the country to use while reimagining the 2020-2021 school year amid COVID-19.

“We are prepared to work with each school jurisdiction to help them use the different strategies we proposed, and use them safely to come up with an optimal strategy for their school,” Redfield explained. “It would be personally disappointing to me if we saw individuals using those guidelines as a rationale for not reopening schools.”

Redfield added that schools and children are typically “an instrument of transmission with influenza” but noted that the agency does “not have evidence children are driving the transmission cycle” with the novel coronavirus.

“We’re prepared to work with every school, every district to find the right mixture of strategies to do this safely,” Redfield said. “Our recommendations are not prescriptive…there are lots of different options.”