February 12th local time, CNN combined federal census data and compared the CDC’s reopening school epidemic prevention guidelines and analyzed that about 99% of children in the United States live in “red” areas representing a high level of COVID-19 transmission.
According to the CDC definition, if a county has at least 100 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people, or if the county has tested positive for COVID-19 at least 10% in the past seven days, the county is a “highly transmitted area” and should be marked red on the map.
According to this definition, nearly 73 million children in the United States (about 99% of Americans under the age of 18) live in high-transmission areas.
Less than 100,000 American children live in “low- or “medium-spread” areas.
In its guidance, CDC recommends that if areas with high virus transmission cannot “strictly enforce all mitigation strategies,” those areas should adopt a distance learning model, while primary schools should adopt a mix of remote and face-to-face learning models or directly reduce primary school attendance.
Primary and secondary schools in areas with low or moderate transmission of the virus can fully open face-to-face teaching.
