Respiratory etiquette, hand hygiene, and social distance are among the recommendations the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes for colleges and universities seeking to reopen in the fall, Inside Higher Ed reports.
It notes that the new CDC guidelines don't address the question of whether or when colleges should resume in-person classes in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Universities have been divided on the issue: California State University announced on Tuesday that its fall classes would be taking place largely online, while New York University has said it plans to resume classes at its various campuses.
The CDC acknowledges in its guidelines that schools differ in their location, size, and other features and may have to adapt its recommendations to their particular situations, though it notes a guiding principle is that "[t]he more an individual interacts with others, and the longer that interaction, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread."
It, for instance, suggests that universities regularly clean and disinfect surfaces that are touched often, modify how classrooms are set up to maintain physical distance where possible, recommend mask use when distance isn't possible, promote handwashing, and install protective barriers or partitions in places where distance is hard to maintain.