Experts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new recommendations for safely reopening schools amid COVID-19. Schools can resume in-person classes, the CDC says, if they and the surrounding community take the proper precautions.
The new recommendations, published online in JAMA, explain that “accumulating data now suggest a path forward to maintain or return primarily or fully to in-person” classes.
In-school transmission of coronavirus is generally quite low, the recommendations say. In a CDC study published earlier this week, researchers looked at COVID-19 data for 17 schools in Wood County, Wisconsin, between August and November of 2020. They found that the rate of COVID-19 cases was actually lower among students and faculty at those schools than it was for the overall county (3,453 cases per 100,000 people compared to 5,466 per 100,000). There were 191 cases among students and staff, but only seven of those cases were linked back to spread within the school—the rest were acquired outside of school.
When looking at how COVID-19 outbreaks happened at schools over the last year, the CDC researchers found that having crowded classrooms (that prevented proper social distancing), inconsistent face mask usage, and the use of air conditioning that recycled air were all big factors. So the new recommendations for reopening schools safely start with a continuation of the precautions that many schools are already taking. That includes requiring that everyone wear masks, implementing COVID-19 screening procedures, getting improved ventilation in classrooms, reducing class size, and requiring social distancing measures. The recommendations also mention that in-person athletics (especially contact sports such as wrestling) can be a source of transmission.
But it’s clearly not just about what the schools need to do—the surrounding community also needs to keep its level of COVID-19 spread as low as possible in order for classes to resume safely. “Preventing transmission in school settings will require addressing and reducing levels of transmission in the surrounding communities through policies to interrupt transmission,” the recommendations state. That would likely include measures such as restrictions on indoor dining at restaurants, limits on the number of people who can attend gatherings, improving access to the COVID-19 vaccines, and continued use of face masks (especially in public areas).
Public health experts agree that with the right precautions in place, schools are not likely to be huge sources of COVID-19 transmission, that it’s actually best if they can remain open, and that there is a way for them to reopen safely. But actually making it happen may be quite challenging.
“My final takeaways haven’t changed since this summer: 1) Community transmission matters, 2) It’s possible to stay safe with #MaskUp, etc 3) But we’re failing to protect teachers & kids in too many schools,” Megan Ranney, M.D., M.P.H., an emergency medicine physician and researcher at Brown University, said on Twitter in regard to the new recommendations. “Let’s be smart, so we can reopen safely. Kids & our teachers deserve it.”
“A lot of people think I want schools closed for the duration of the pandemic. Not true. I believe schools could be made safe enough to open. BUT, I think many schools or communities have NOT done what’s needed to be open safely now,” Ellie Murray, Sc.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, wrote on Twitter.
“I still feel strongly that schools should be the last [to] close. Glad to see @CDCgov weighing in,” Uché Blackstock, M.D., emergency medicine physician and founder of Advancing Health Equity, wrote on Twitter.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic is a crucial step, but it will be no easy feat. “Decisions made today can help ensure safe operation of schools and provide critical services to children and adolescents in the US. Some of these decisions may be difficult,” the recommendations read. “Committing today to policies that prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission in communities and in schools will help ensure the future social and academic welfare of all students and their education.”
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