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Amid debate over whether to reopen public schools closed for nearly a year by the coronavirus pandemic, a new federal study on Monday indicated that when there were outbreaks on campus, they were primarily driven by infected teachers. .
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study looked at nine clusters of cases in an elementary school district in Georgia on the outskirts of Atlanta.
“Educators were at the heart of transmission networks at school,” said the study, which also noted that “all nine transmission clusters involved less than ideal physical distance, and five involved improper use of masks. by the students.
The CDC said the outbreaks seen in the Dec.1-Jan.22 study did not contradict its recent guidelines or evidence showing that schools can safely reopen even in communities with high transmission of the virus, when they follow face mask and physical distance measurements.
“Previous surveys in other US school districts have found that low transmission rates in schools can be sustained amid high community incidence,” the report says, suggesting the need for more “messages to raise awareness. educators ”at the risk of acquiring the virus from colleagues.
The national debate over reopening schools has been particularly heated in California, where most public schools, especially in poor neighborhoods and large cities, lag far behind the state’s private, charter and wealthy public districts and country regarding the return of students to class.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom, state lawmakers, district leaders, and unions representing public school teachers wrangle over when and how to reopen schools, parents have grown frustrated and anxious to see their children struggle with problems. Online courses widely recognized as a poor substitute for in-person courses. .
State lawmakers in the assembly held briefing hearings on Monday on a legislative proposal backed by teacher unions and six of the state’s largest school districts, which Newsom and parents urge for a quicker return at school criticized. The state Senate, where he awaits a budget committee hearing, did not address him on Monday.
The proposal would require elementary schools to reopen by at least April 15 for part-time in-person hybrid education when their county’s infection rates drop to the state’s second-highest red level. Newsom, whose own plan fails to set a firm reopening requirement, and parent groups criticized the legislative proposal as not going far enough to quickly reopen schools.
In Georgia District, the CDC studied, 2,600 students and 700 staff attended the school in person. The nine groups of cases involved 13 educators and 32 students from six of the eight elementary schools in the district, 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 the most common transmission on campuses was among adult educators, who were three times more likely to spread the virus. on campuses as students.
Eight of the nine clusters of cases observed involved at least one educator and one “probable transmission educator”. In four of the groups, educators were the index case – the one who would have been infected first and who would have started the epidemic. One student was the benchmark case in only one group, and in the other four it was not possible to determine whether he started with a student or a teacher.
Two clusters that accounted for almost half of school-associated cases involved probable educator-to-educator transmission at in-person meetings or lunches, followed by educator-to-student transmission in the classroom.
The study found that 69 exposed household members among 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 on desks between students, due to the high number of students in the classroom and the layout of the building, they were spaced less than three feet – half the six-foot distance standard recommended by the CDC.
They also said that in seven clusters, transmission between educators and students could have taken place in “small group instruction sessions where educators worked close to students.”
And although the district required the use of masks in class except when eating, and compliance during site visits appeared high, interviews for the outbreak investigation found that “the lack or The inadequate use of the mask by the pupils probably helped to spread in five groups.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement Monday that the study “adds to a body of evidence that shows COVID-19 is transmissible in schools without safety guards in place”.
“School buildings can be safe for teachers and children, but mitigation, testing and layered tracing must be implemented to reduce the risk of transmission, with vaccine availability being another layer of protection,” Weingarten said. “We hope school districts take a close look at it.”
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