CDC urges schools to reopen under relaxed guidelines for bringing kids back to class after Trump called its previous recommendations 'tough and expensive' - but offers little advice to hotspots where COVID-19 is surging

The top US health agency is now urging schools to reopen if all possible, issuing new guidance after the White House pressured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to revise its previous recommendations. 

'It is critically important for our public health to open schools this fall,' CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield said in a statement released with the new guidelines. 

During a Friday press call, he and other health officials said that the health and developmental benefits of having kids in school, full-time, outweighed the coronavirus risks for under-18s, among whom case and death rates remain low.   

The updated advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was posted Thursday night, and came a few weeks after President Donald Trump asked the agency to change course.

'We owe it to our nation's children to take personal responsibility to do everything we can to lower the levels of COVID-19, so they can go back to school safely,' CDC chief Dr Redfield said Friday.

With the virus still rampant in many parts of the country, a number of cities including Houston and Los Angeles have already announced that schools will reopen virtually.

But during a Friday press briefing, the CDC urged that all schools make it their aim to reopen for fully in-person classes this fall, but largely punted how to do so safely - especially in hotspots like Florida, Texas and California. 

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US health authorities are urging schools to reopen to students in the fall -- here, school buses are seen in San Francisco

Others like New York, where the epidemic has receded, are opting for a hybrid model.

Although the CDC says schools must take into consideration local virus transmission rates, it offers no precise guidance on what the cut-off threshold should be.

CDC's previous guidelines offered much more stringent recommendations to schools, urging staggered arrival times, keeping students six feet apart at all times (or as near to all times as possible), keeping children in pods and having them wear masks. 

The guidance recommended that schools be able to implement these strategies and screenings before they reopened - although Dr Redfield said the guidance was not 'prescriptive.'  

President Trump balked that the guidelines were too financially and practically burdensome to schools, his administration insisted the guidance would be revised and blocked CDC officials from testifying before a Congressional committee earlier this month.   

Dr Redfield insisted there would not be a revision, but the updated guidance is certainly a departure from the last recommendations and appears to fall more closely in line with the more relaxed approach President Trump had urged.  

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CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield said on Friday that it s 'crucially important' for schools to reopen this fall 

Pence and CDC confirm guidelines to reopen schools across US

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Asked by a reporter how he would define a hotspot that should not yet reopen its schools, Redfield said: 'Right now we're looking where the percent positivity rate within the community is greater than five percent.'

Positivity refers to the rate of coronavirus tests that come back positive, and the World Health Organization (WHO) considers a rate of above five percent to indicate rampant community spread.

Officials will be looking at data on the county level, but as a gauge, only 17 states plus the US capital currently fulfill this requirement on a statewide basis.

Nationwide, the positivity rate currently stands at about eight percent.  

Redfield however stressed it was 'just guidance to consider, to be more cautious.'

Officials acknowledged that risk thresholds and safety concerns may not be the same for all parents, students and teachers. 

However the CDC spokespeople put the onus on teachers with underlying conditions to work out their own arrangements with their employers if they do not feel safe returning to full-time in-person teaching. 

Families will ostensibly be encouraged to do the same. 

However, dr Mitchell Zais, Deputy Secretary of Education, said on Friday that the Trump administration plans to see to it that any family whose children's school refuses to open in the fall receives money to send their kids to another school - public, private, charter or faith-based - that is in session.