On Thursday, Los Angeles County health officials tried to clarify comments made by Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer after a publicized recording indicated her predicting that schools were unlikely to reopen until after the November election.

Local radio affiliate KFI AM 640 first reported the comments, and the news outlet provided an audio file of Ferrer seeming to make those comments.

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Ferrer said during a reported conference call with local officials, “We don’t realistically anticipate that we would be moving either to Tier 2 [of California’s reopening plan] or to reopening K-12 schools at least…until after the election, after, you know, in early November.”

“If we just look at the timing of everything, it seems to us the most realistic approach to this would be to think that we’re gonna be where we are now…until…we are done with the elections,” she said.

A L.A. County Department of Public Health spokesperson clarified that Ferrer’s comment “was related only to timing any expanded school re-openings to allow for enough time from the implementation of changes to assess impact prior to expansions.”

“DPH will be working closely with schools providing services and supports to high need students over the next 6-8 weeks to implement and assess safety directives and strategies for ensuring infection control and distancing. This information will be used to inform the timing of future activities at schools,” the statement added.

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In July, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) issued a statewide mandate banning students from attending in-class school. Since that time, Orange County school districts have planned to reopen campuses by the end of September, but most other districts remain closed to in-class attendance.

This piece originally appeared in ThePoliticalInsider.com and is used by permission.

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