The Trump administration has shelved detailed guidelines created by the nation's top disease investigators with step-by-step advice on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report of The Associated Press (AP) on Thursday.
The 17-page document by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) team, titled "Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework," was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen, according to the AP report.
It was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance "would never see the light of day," a CDC official was quoted by the report as saying, on the condition of anonymity.
The AP obtained a copy from a second federal official who was not authorized to release it.
The guidance, which the CDC first submitted to the White House in draft form two weeks ago, was meant to help states, local governments and businesses adopt measures that would help keep the virus from spreading once they reopened, according to The New York Times.
"But several federal agencies, including the Department of Labor and the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services, protested, saying it would be harmful to businesses and the economy and too prescriptive for houses of worship in particular," the Times report quoted a federal official as saying.
