The upcoming school year is looking more promising than ever.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walenksy revealed that she thinks in-person learning will be restored by the start of the fall semester.
"We should anticipate, come September 2021, that schools should be full-fledged in person and all of our children back in the classroom," Walensky told ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton.
During the Instagram Live conversation, she added that she believes this will be the case even if children are not vaccinated by that time.
"We can vaccinate teachers, we can test, there's so much we can do," she explained.
However, she does believe that children will be eligible for the vaccination by mid-May.
"Mid-May maybe we'll be able to have a vaccine from Pfizer that we'll be able to do down to 12," she said noting that the FDA will have to authorize the vaccine for the younger age group.
Currently, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are available to to those 16 and older.
Pfizer began testing children under 12 in late March and announced shortly after that the vaccine is safe and strongly protective for the demographic.
In a study of 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15, preliminary data showed there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared to 18 among those given dummy shots, Pfizer reported.
Walensky expects Moderna studies on the age demographic to follow suit.
She added that she’s hopeful both vaccines will be available by the summertime.
As for children under 12, she doesn’t expect that there will be an authorized vaccine by the end of the year.
The three vaccines currently available to Americans are all believed to be effective against the U.K. variant, which the White House recently revealed has become the dominant strain in the U.S.
With additional variants popping up, Walensky said that it’s especially important that people “roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated.”
The CDC also eased coronavirus guidelines for cleaning surfaces in homes, schools and other facilities.
Walensky revealed the risk of getting COVID from contaminated surfaces is low. She noted regular cleaning with soap or detergent is effective to reduce spread of the coronavirus. Disinfection is still recommended when positive cases have been suspected.
“When no people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 are known to have been in a space, cleaning once a day is usually enough to sufficiently remove virus that may be on surfaces and help maintain a healthy facility,” the guidelines note.
Previously, the CDC added that students can safely sit just 3 feet apart in the classroom as long as they wear masks but should be kept the usual 6 feet away from one another at sporting events, assemblies, lunch or chorus practice.
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