. >> joining us now to talk more about it is state superintendent of public instrution tony thurmond. superintendent thurmond, thank you for joining us today. >> thank you, kristen. >> do you think this incentive-based plan will get the vast majority of elementary school students in california back to in-person learning by the end of march? give us your best projection. >> i really think this is the best pathway that you could hope for. this says 10% of vaccines are being set aside for educators. it gives schools $2 billion to buy things like rapid covid tests. i think this is absolutely the path that we need to get our schools open. i think this is an amazing step in the right direction. >> all right. can you explain the provision that once in the red tier to get the incentive money middle and high schools need to open at least one grade. what does that mean? >> i think it recognizes that we are being given new data that shows that with the right measures in place we believe that elementary schools can be opened safely. it recognizes that our older students, they need support too but

way to return to in person learning kron 4 sanaz tahernia has the details state superintendent tony thurmond discussed wednesday, the use of rapid covid-19 testing as a tool to safely resume in person learning on school campuses the school districts would use abbott labs a bye next now antigen tests they're only $5 a piece and you get results in as little as 15 minutes by next now tests are currently use that the california department of education's 3 schools for the blind in death in order to return students back to the classroom. so we want to do is. >>interrupt the ability of the virus to spread from student to teacher a teacher teacher teacher to student or teacher to staff, whatever it's interrupting the spread that is the goal of this schools all across the state can participate in the program, but officials say they're particularly interested in those within the hardest hit communities the bottom line is as long as there are covid cases in the community. they are going to be cases locking into schools, it's unavoidable. >>in a scenario where you have multiple cases in a school setting

. >> reporter: tony thurmond addressed reopening on abc7 news at 4:00. he suggested it could have happened sooner. >> unfortunately, a number of districts have never pursued the waiver that's would have allowed some schools to reopen even in small cohorts. >> by mid-march, i'm anticipating that 100% of the public, private and parochial schools in marin will be open for at least some in-person instruction. >> reporter: she expects marin to receive $35 million because of the bill. she started opening schools in the fall. >> at this point, we have over 1 million in-person will days with just 11 cases of in-school transmission. we have the data to show that we're able to operate safely. >> reporter: abc7 news. >>> in the east bay, educators, teachers and other school staff have this thursday and friday reserved for them to get vaccinated at the coliseum site in oakland. the governor made that announcement. today emthe state is setting aside at least 75,000 doses for educators across california. >>> in the south bay, teachers and other school perm he will beg

school superintendent tony thurmond. covered a lot of ground in little time. always appreciative of the time you set aside for us. take care until next time. >> thank you. take care. >>> coming up next we talk reopening skooms with the cdc guidelines issue today and the covid-19 questions with but i'll try to get to a few of your questions. all right. >>> welcome back. the three ke points for fl plarne they thout masks o distancintwo, ty unvaccinated people from a single household at low risk for severe covid. again, no masks no distancing. three, they don't have to garn teen or test after known exposure as long as they have no symptoms. joining us now to break down the new guiden. infectious disease specialist dr. monica gandhi. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> start by defining what fulw vaccinated means. >> in this case it means you have have both doses of the rmna doses and waited two weeks after the second dose. >> got it. >> okay. >> and johnson & johnson. >> and the johnson & johnson vaccine it's two weeks after the dose, but to be honest, i'd wa

. >> reporter: tony thurmond addressed reopening on abc7 news at 4:00.ave never pursued the waiver that's would have allowed some schools to reopen even in small cohorts. >> by mid-march, i'm anticipating that 100% of the public, private and parochial schools in marin will be open for at least some in-person instruction. >> reporter: she expects marin to receive $35 million because of the bill. she started opening schools in the fall. >> at this point, we have over 1 million in-person will days with just 11 cases of in-school transmission. we have the data to show that we're able to operate safely. >> reporter: abc7 news. >>> in the east bay, educators, teachers and other school staff have this thursday and friday reserved for them to get vaccinated at the coliseum site in oakland. the governor made that announcement. today emthe state is setting aside at least 75,000 doses for educators across california. >>> in the south bay, teachers and other school perm he will began will getting vaccinated today. they are working school districts to manage outreach

>>state superintendent tony thurmond discussed wednesday, the use of rapid covid-19 testing as a tool to safely resume in person learning on school campuses the school districts would use abbott labs a bye next now antigen tests they're only $5 a piece and you get results in as little as 15 minutes by next now tests are currently use that the california department of education's 3 schools for the blind in death in order to return students back to the classroom. so we want to do is. >>interrupt the ability of the virus to spread from student to teacher a teacher teacher teacher to student or teacher to staff, whatever it's interrupting the spread that is the goal of this schools all across the state can participate in the program, but officials say they're particularly interested in those within the hardest hit communities. the bottom line is as long as there are covid cases in the community. they are going to be cases walking into schools is unavoidable. >>in a scenario where you have multiple cases in a school setting the question has always done friend happen within our walls or act

. >>> state superintendent tony thurmond is hosting webinars on keeping classrooms safe.t comes as many schools are reopening to students. participate pats will hear from school districts, education leaders for safe in-person learning. topics include ventilation upgrades and covid-19 testing. >>> more than 30 million americans are now infected with covid-19. this comes as president biden plans to announce a plan to expand vaccines and increase confidence in hard hit americans. >> reporter: 84 million americans have now received at least one dose of the vaccine. the biden administrations had spent $10 million toward it. in addition to building confidence, the plan will also direct health departments to expand eligibility to frontline worker assed people 16 years and up with high risk medical conditions. the husband will announce that vaccine will be sent straight to dialysis clinics. it comes as they have's seen 16 states grow. astrazeneca is hoping to add their vaccine after updating it showing that it is 76% effective slightly lower than what they announced earlier this

>>state superintendent tony thurmond discussed wednesday, the use of rapid covid-19 testing as a tool to safely resume in person learning on school campuses the school districts would use abbott labs a bye next now antigen tests they're only $5 a piece and you get results in as little as 15 minutes by next now tests are currently use that the california department of education's 3 schools for the blind in death in order to return students back to the classroom. so we want to do is. >>interrupt the ability of the virus to spread from student to teacher a teacher teacher teacher to student or teacher to staff, whatever it's interrupting the spread that is the goal of this schools all across the state can participate in the program, but officials say they're particularly interested in those within the hardest hit communities. the bottom line is as long as there are covid cases in the community. they are going to be cases walking into schools is unavoidable. >>in a scenario where you have multiple cases in a school setting the question has always done friend happen within our walls or act

>>and a big step towards reopening schools in the state state school superintendent tony thurmond discussed a pilot program using frequent rapid covid-19 testing as a way to return to in person learning on forced us to pretty us live for us now in the newsroom with details on this good afternoon sun good afternoon just seen. >>11 school districts in the state are currently participating in this pilot program for of which are right here in the bay area, those 4 school districts include oakland unified ravenswood city unified redwood city unified and la honda pescadero unified school districts. now under this program schools will be required to conduct frequent in ongoing testing of everyone on site school districts would use what's called the by next now antigen test manufactured by abbott labs. and the test costs about $5 a piece and you get results in as little as 15 minutes schools, all across the state can participate, but officials say they're particularly interested in within the hardest hit communities. >>we want to do is interrupt the ability of the virus to spread from student to te

>>state superintendent tony thurmond discussed wednesday, the use of rapid covid-19 testing as a toolo safely resume in person learning on school campuses the school districts would use abbott labs a bye next now antigen tests they're only $5 a piece and you get results in as little as 15 minutes by next now tests are currently use that the california department of education's 3 schools for the blind in death in order to return students back to the classroom. so we want to do is. >>interrupt the ability of the virus to spread from student to teacher a teacher teacher teacher to student or teacher to staff, whatever it's interrupting the spread that is the goal of this schools all across the state can participate in the program, but officials say they're particularly interested in those within the hardest hit communities. the bottom line is as long as there are covid cases in the community. they are going to be cases walking into schools, it's unavoidable. >>in a scenario where you have multiple cases in a school setting the question is always did friend happen within our walls or acti

. >>> happening today, state superintendent of public instruction tony thurmond will host a meeting to talk about the reopening of schools. it includes a strategic use of rapid covid-19 testing as a tool. earlier this week thurmond told abc 7 news he feels very confident that kids will be back in person by the fall. thurmond cites governor newsom's announcement that 210,000 education staff members have already been vaccinated in the first week of prioritizing them. >>> we're learning more about santa clara conte's decision to not join the state wide effort have blue shield lead vaccine distribution. it will not be signing the contract with the company because it is another layer of administrative bureaucracy. one concern the state requirement to use the my turn vaccine appointment system. >> it would mean a private insurance company would be collecting all the protected health information and personal information for all residents who are vaccinated. >> santa clara county joins los angeles county in refusing to sign a contract. the insurance company says its goal is to build a network

today state schools superintendent tony thurmond joined me on our 3:00 p.m. show "getting answers."out the progress being made to vaccinate all teachers who want the shot. >> governor just announced today that more than 200,000 educators in the state have already received vaccinations. so we're seeing now that the vaccine dosages are really starting to really accelerate in terms of the availability of doses. 200,000 in about a week, that means that we're really getting faster and getting closer to getting our educators vaccinated. >> and superintendent thurmond went on to say the state plans to hold a webinar wednesday to help the school district develop a plan to capitalize on the reopening incentives that governor newsom announced last week. >>> when it comes to job reviews, how do you know your boss is unbiased? artificial intelligence could hold the answer. >>> and an art experience like no people were afraid i was contagious. i felt gross. it was kind of a shock after i started cosentyx. four years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use

. >>> tony thurmond is the state superintendent of public instruction. he addressed the reopening of the schools on abc 7 news at 4:00. he hinted it could have happened sooner. >> you know, unfortunately, a number of districts for whatever reason have never pursued the waivers that would have allowed some schools to be open, even in the small cohorts in purple tier. and at the same time there's been i would say a lot of debate about whether or not it was safe enough to open. and there's no one to blame other than covid itself. >> he says new guidance from the cdc along with vaccines are providing a much clearer path to reopening. >>> bay area school districts are all this different stages of trying to reopen classrooms before the end of the school year. as abc 7 news reporter laura anthony discovered, educators' reactions to today's announcement are as varied as their situations. >> in terms of being helpful not so much. >> reporter: the reaction to governor gavin newsom's schools reopening plan is decidedly mixed. in oakland where some parents are deman

with state school superintendent tony thurmond. an estimated 200,000 teachers across california got the vaccine in the past week. that's a key factor in reopening classrooms. abc 7 news anchor kristen sze also asked him about the next step. >> what's your best guess for timeline for california and students getting vaccinations? >> to be honest i haven't heard from many districts this year that have talked about getting vaccines to their students. it would seem as though that most students would get vaccines after this school year has ended. they're still waiting for more from the cdc on the impacts of the vaccine on young people. >> now, all this week we are featuring stories about the learning loss that students are suffering with online school. you'll find all of our reporting online, on social media and wherever you stream. >> check it out. but still ahead here on abc 7 news at 6:00, talk about race at work. not with your boss but with a robot. a bay area company is offering it for free. it's helping to build a better bay area.