Mecklenburg Health Director Gibbie Harris said Wednesday that students could return to in-person schools part time if the county’s test-positivity rate reaches 5% – assuming schools have enough protective equipment and staff.
After being above 10% for much of the summer, the percentage of tests coming back positive in Mecklenburg County is now at 7.5%.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield has said he thinks schools can have in-classroom instruction so long as they aren't in coronavirus "hotspots." In an interview in July, he clarified that a hotspot is when the test positivity rate is 5% or above.
Harris backs that idea so long as schools are prepared in other ways.
"A lot also depends on teachers' willingness to come back and parents' willingness to bring their children in," she said during a virtual news conference. "Five percent and having good processes in place and sufficient staffing -- I think we could safely bring kids back in for at least part time."
N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper gave school districts the option to have either all virtual learning or to have in-classroom instruction with reduced capacity.
CMS initially planned for some in-person instruction at the start of the year so teachers could meet their students. But the board voted to switch to an all-virtual classroom after learning of staffing problems and greater concern about the virus.
The number of new Mecklenburg County coronavirus cases has been decreasing in recent weeks, along with the number of people hospitalized with COVID.
Harris is part of a 13-member Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools medical task force that’s working to create metrics for school reopenings.
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