KENTON COUNTY, Ky. — Starting Monday, schools across Kentucky move to remote learning as part of a set of new restrictions put in place by Gov. Andy Beshear (D) to combat a wave of new COVID-19 cases.

But this week, the Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told the nation the coronavirus is not spreading in schools.

While many Kentucky school districts are already taking part in remote learning, now, next week it will be all private and public schools across the commonwealth.

“It is our hope, and we will make every effort to make sure that in January we have the opportunity to return to in-person instruction. But in every one of the communities out there right now, based on the community transmission that we’re trying to stop here remote learning is already in progress,” Beshear said on Wednesday.

However, CDC Director Robert Redfield said coronavirus is not spreading in schools. During a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Thursday, Dr. Redfield explained how it’s spreading in the community and small family gatherings.

“The infections that we've identified in schools when they've been evaluated were not acquired in schools, they were actually acquired in the community and in the household," Redfield said. "Today, as Dr. Birx said, our big threat for transmission is not the public square, it's small family gatherings."

"Family gatherings where people become more comfortable, they remove their face masks when they get together and it's this silent epidemic that begins to transmit. It's not inter-school transmission,” Redfield said.

The CDC Director said it would be counterproductive to close schools in an effort to contain the virus.

So which is correct?

“You know, it’s a tough situation to be in,” said Crystal Miller, DrPH, MPH. She’s the Director of the WEDCO District Health Department for Harrison, Nicholas, Scott and Bourbon Counties.

“Our schools have worked really really hard on making sure that kids are safe, and we locally have not seen the transmission in schools. However, the reason for schools shutting down is the amount of disease spreading in communities that then may be contributing to asymptomatic kids going to school contributes to that,” Miller said

She acknowledges schools have worked hard to put COVID-19 protocols in place set by the CDC and Kentucky’s "Healthy At School" Guidelines to make them safer.

Miller also said it’s unknown if community spread is trickling into schools or not.

“That’s the missing piece for us. And so with the amount of disease spreading across communities in Kentucky are, we’ve had the highest disease rate we’ve ever had, our hospitalizations have quadrupled in a month and so the danger in that is all of that encompasses the decision to shut down schools for a short period of time and re-evaluate,” Miller said.

A re-evaluation that could potentially come in January.