As some 50 million kids return to the classroom, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is updating COVID-19 guidance for the first time since May.
The CDC is no longer recommending quarantine, even after exposure to someone infected with COVID-19. That means gone are screenings at K-12 schools, though students with symptoms should still take COVID tests.
There are also new guidelines on when masks should be worn indoors.
Chris Belletti and his family have had a summer of fun, a summer not stressed about the pandemic.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
"It feels like people don't talk about it at all, people aren't worried bout it as much you," Belletti said.
But with a wife working as a teacher and a daughter headed to kindergarten, the focus is on those new guidelines.
"I definitely feel safer now that I have been vaccinated and boosted and especially now that my kids are vaccinated and boosted."
Dr. C. Michael Gibson said these new guidelines reflect the different point we are at in this pandemic.
"I think we have pivoted away from preventing transmission over to preventing severe illness and death, that seems like an appropriate goal now that 95 percent of the population has either had the infection, or has been vaccinated," he explained.
There are also new guidelines on when masks should be worn indoors.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education still must weigh in. A DESE spokesperson said they are expected to update guidance early next week as an evolving pandemic meets a changing response.
