Covid-19: US mulls reducing social distancing rules

Washington - The six-foot social distancing rule has been a widely-adopted global measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The United States’ top pandemic advisor said Sunday that authorities were considering cutting social distancing rules to three feet (one meter), a move that would change a key tenet of the global fight against Covid-19.

Anthony Fauci, a world-respected figure during the coronavirus crisis, said experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were examining a Massachusetts study that found “no substantial difference” in Covid cases in schools observing six-foot and three-foot rules.

Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” show whether that meant that a three-foot separation was sufficient, Fauci replied, “It does, indeed.”

While cautioning that the CDC was still poring over the new data and conducting tests of its own, he said its findings would come “soon.”

The six-foot social distancing rule has been a widely-adopted global measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, along with mask-wearing and hand-washing.

School officials across the world are under enormous pressure to fully reopen as soon as safely possible, but many say the six-foot requirement makes it extremely difficult without adding portable classrooms or shortening the school day.

Many teachers unions have also insisted on six-foot distancing.

As the top school officials from Penfield, New York wrote in the journal Education Week, “The single biggest obstacle to fully reopening schools is the 6-foot distancing requirement.”