Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that it would be possible for people to gather in synagogues for the Yomim Noraim in the fall if contact tracing is implemented to avoid a second wave of the pandemic.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the comments in a conference call organized by the Orthodox Union, where OU executive vice president Rabbi Moshe Hauer brought up several viable options that would allow restarting shuls, such as having people wear masks, holding multiple services with stagger start times so as to limit attendance to 10, and have people stand eight feet apart.”
“There will almost certainly be virus around in the fall and winter,” Dr. Fauci told the callers. “Whether there’s a second wave or not will depend on our preparedness and our ability, when infections reappear, if we can put the lid on them by identification, isolation and contact tracing. If we have that in place in September, October, November, even though there could be cases, we should be able to handle it.”
Read more at The Forward.
