CDC expands guidance to reopen business amid COVID-19

May 20 (UPI) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a more fully detailed set of national guidelines for reopening schools, businesses and mass transit from coronavirus-related lockdowns.

The 60-page guidance appeared Wednesday and expands on a less comprehensive checklist of recommendations issued by the agency last week.

The Trump administration recently has encouraged greater loosening of state and local restrictions due to their economic toll. Health officials, however, have cautioned that reopening too soon could lead to future outbreaks.

The new guidelines focus on expanded testing and robust contact tracing as key criteria.

"The principal objectives of COVID-19 surveillance are to monitor the spread and intensity of the pandemic, to enable contact tracing to slow transmission, and to identify disease clusters requiring special intervention," the guidance says.

It also includes more detailed plans for reopening restaurants and bars, child care centers, mass transit and other parts of the shuttered economy.

They recommend, for instance, that restaurants use disposable utensils and plates and mass transit operators to close every other row of seats on trains and buses.