New search published on Tuesday by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suggests that the risk of spreading COVID-19 in classrooms is relatively low, adding new questions about the continued closure of face-to-face education across the country.
Published in the medical journal JAMA, the researchers discuss the results of several studies looking at exposure to COVID-19 among children under 18. A case-control study in Mississippi.
Of the 397 participants, 154 were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. Attending nearby social gatherings or interacting with members outside their families was a major cause of infection, but attending school personally was not.
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Similar results were recorded when examining 11 school districts in North Carolina, with 90,000 students and staff occupying classrooms for nine weeks.
The researchers found that transmissions within the school were rare, with only 32 COVID-19 infections attributed to exposure in school settings. A much larger number of infections, 773, were related to other sources of transmission in the community.
Another Wisconsin report showed low transmission between 17 K-12 schools – as long as students and teachers wore masks.
“The researchers concluded that this data, together with the observation that infection rates between teachers and non-teachers were generally similar, indicated that schools were not associated with accelerated transmission in the community,” wrote the researchers.
However, other reports outside the US recognize outbreaks that have occurred in school settings. The contributing factors were crowded classrooms, use of a non-universal face mask and indoor air recirculation.
Many schools in the United States that chose to reopen imposed public health precautions and worked to reduce class sizes to reduce overcrowding indoors.
President biden announced new guidelines with the United States Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to open schools at the K-8 level in about 100 days.
Biden asked Congress for about $ 130 billion in school funding for K-12 schools to help cover reopening costs and support teachers and teachers who were fired.
Meanwhile, CDC researchers conclude that, although educational environments have a low risk of transmission, living communities gathered together, that is, university dormitories, have higher levels of COVID-19 transmission risk.
An important factor that will contribute to the reopening of schools will be the reduction of transmission outside the classroom, that is, avoiding being in crowded public spaces and adhering to public health measures.
“All the mitigation measures recommended in schools must continue: requiring universal use of a face mask, increasing physical distance through de-densification [sic] classrooms and common areas, using hybrid care models when necessary to limit the total number of contacts and avoid crowding, increasing ventilation in the environment and expanding screening tests to quickly identify and isolate asymptomatic infected individuals, ”concluded the authors.
In addition, although carefully designed classroom configurations may boast a low COVID-19 transmission rate, other school activities, including sports, still carry a high risk of outbreaks.
“With 2 vaccines being distributed under Emergency Use Authorizations and more vaccine options planned to be available in the coming months, there is much hope on the horizon for a safer environment for schools and school-related sports activities during the 2021 school year / 22 ”, the authors of the report foresee. “Today’s commitment to policies that prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in communities and schools will help ensure the future social and academic well-being of all students and their education.”
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