Amid the debate over the reopening of public schools closed for almost a year by the coronavirus pandemic, a new federal study on Monday indicated that when outbreaks on campus occurred, they were caused mainly by infected teachers.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study examined nine groups of cases in a Georgia elementary school district in the suburb of Atlanta.
“Educators were instrumental in transmission networks in schools,” said the study, which also noted that “all nine transmission groups involved less than ideal physical distance and five involved inappropriate mask use by students.”
The CDC said that the outbreaks observed in the study from December 1 to January 22 do not contradict its guidance or recent evidence that schools can reopen safely, even in communities where the transmission of the virus is high, when they follow measures to use facial masks and physical distance.
“Previous investigations in other US school districts have found that low transmission rates in schools can be maintained in the context of high incidence in the community,” said the report, suggesting the need for more “awareness-raising among educators” about the risk of acquiring the virus from colleagues.
The national debate over the reopening of schools has become especially heated in California, where most public schools, especially in impoverished and large districts, lag far behind private, licensed and wealthy public districts in the state and across the country in returning students. to classrooms.
As Governor Gavin Newsom, state legislators, district leaders and unions representing public school teachers discuss when and how to reopen schools, parents were frustrated and impatient to see their children struggle with online classes widely recognized as a poor substitute for taught classes. personally .
State legislators at the Assembly held information hearings on Monday on a legislative proposal supported by teacher unions and six of the state’s largest school districts, which Newsom and parents who advocate a quicker return to school criticized. The state Senate, which is awaiting a hearing from the budget committee, did not accept the matter on Monday.
The proposal would require primary schools to reopen by April 15, at least for part-time hybrid face-to-face education, when county infection rates fall to the state’s second-highest level. Newsom, whose own plan does not set a firm requirement for reopening, and groups of parents have criticized the legislative proposal for not going far enough to reopen schools quickly.
In the Georgia district that the CDC studied, 2,600 students and 700 staff attended the school in person. The nine case groups involved 13 educators and 32 students in six of the district’s eight elementary schools, or just under 2% of staff and 1.2% of students.
The CDC also said the findings are consistent with studies in the UK and Germany that found that the most common transmission on campuses was among adult educators, who were three times more likely to spread the virus on campus than students.
Eight of the nine groups of cases observed involved at least one educator and “likely transmission from educator to student”. In four of the clusters, educators were the index case – the one thought to have been infected first and to have started the outbreak. One student was the index case in just one cluster, and in the other four, it was not possible to determine whether it started with a student or teacher.
Two groups that represented almost half of the cases associated with the school involved the probable transmission from educator to educator during personal meetings or lunches, followed by the transmission from educator to student in the classroom.
The study said that 69 exposed family members of those with school-associated cases were tested for COVID-19 and 18, or about one in four, were confirmed to be infected.
The authors noted that, although plastic dividers were placed in the desks among students, because of the large number of students in the class and the layout of the building, they sat less than a meter apart – half the distance pattern of six feet recommended by the CDC.
They also said that in seven groups, the transmission between educators and students may have occurred during “small group instruction sessions, in which educators worked closely with students”.
And although the district required the use of a mask in the classroom, except during meals, and compliance during site visits seemed high, interviews in the outbreak investigation revealed that “the lack or inappropriate use of masks by students is likely contributed to spread into five groups “.
The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement on Monday that the study “adds evidence that shows that COVID-19 can be transmitted in schools without protective grids in place.”
“School buildings can be safe for teachers and children, but layered mitigation and testing and screening must be implemented to reduce the risk of transmission, with the vaccine available as another layer of protection,” said Weingarten. “We hope that school districts will examine this closely.”