While it is not a certainty, it is likely that schools will be able to reopen in the fall, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Tuesday.
“I fully expect — though I’m humble enough that I can’t accurately predict — that by the time we get to the fall that we will have this under control enough, that it certainly will not be the way it is now — where people are shutting schools,” Fauci said at the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House.
“My optimistic side tells me we will be able to renew,” he added.
“But it is going to be different” because the coronavirus won’t disappear, he warned.
Communities will have to have the ability to identify the virus, isolate infected patients and trace the source of the infection, he added.
“Bottom line, no absolute prediction. But I think we’re going to be in good shape,” he said.
Asked about whether summer camps will be able to open, Fauci was more circumspect.
He said this depends more on how the country responds in the near term to the pandemic and whether the U.S. reaches the top of the “curve” of the coronavirus outbreak and there is no rebound later.
