#Fauci urges closing bars in order to keep New York schools open

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday said bars should be closed in order to prioritize getting children back in school in New York City and other regions that have experienced rising COVID-19 cases.

“Close the bars and keep the schools open,” Fauci told ABC anchor Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”

“The default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school or to get them back to school.”

The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases added that schools haven’t played a significant role in driving community spread of the virus.

“If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not really very big at all. Not like one would have suspected so let’s try to get the children back,” Fauci said.

He called for leaders to focus on imposing restrictions on more high-risk settings, such as bars and indoor dining without masks.

“The best way to ensure the safety of the children in school is to get the community level of spread low so if you mitigate the things that you know that are causing spread in a very profound way and robust way [and] bring that down, you will then indirectly protect the children in the school,” Fauci said.