GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Advice from the nation's top disease control experts on how to safely reopen businesses and institutions in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic included detailed, instructive guidance and some more restrictive measures than the plan released by the White House last month.
The guidance, which was shelved by Trump administration officials, also offered recommendations to help communities decide when to shut facilities down again during future flareups of COVID-19.
The Associated Press has obtained a 63-page document that is more detailed than other, previously reported segments of the shelved guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Trump administration previously released a 17-page document offering advice on reopening the country, but only after the AP published the document along with a report about how officials killed its released.
Among the differences between the larger document and the previously released guidance is recommendations on nonessential travel. In the unreleased guidance, the CDC recommended against all nonessential travel until the latest phase of reopening, and only after 42 continuous days of declining cases of COVID-19.
According to the guidance released by the Trump administration, nonessential travel can resume in "Phase 2" of reopening, after 28 consecutive days of declines.
The AP also reports that the shelved document mentions that COVID-19 cases will likely spike once the economy reopens and gives local governments advice on how to track cases. The White House document does not offer such advice.
View the unreleased guidance from the CDC in the window below.
