Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

October 28, 2020

COVID-19 Infections Following Physical School Reopening

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[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] A study examining the effect of school re-opening on county-level COVID-19 incidence in Florida reported that counties with in-person instruction experienced a 16% increase in SARS-CoV-2 incidence at day 20 after school reopening among children age 6-13 years (from 11 to 12.8 per 100,000) and an increase of 27% among children age 14-17 (from 16.1 to 20.5 per 100,000). In counties with remote teaching, there was no significant increase; however, during the 10 days before school re-openings, counties that remained remote had considerably lower incidence than counties that subsequently started in-person instruction, indicating differences in community transmission between counties that did and did not re-open schools with in-person instruction. [EDITORIAL NOTE: This ecological comparison did not account for potential differences in other infection control measures in place between counties. Additionally, in-person instruction may have resulted in a higher level of detection of infected children that may not have been identified in the absences of in-person instruction. No information was provided as to whether testing practices differed between counties or were altered by school openings.]

Miron et al. (Oct 27, 2020). COVID-19 Infections Following Physical School Reopening. Pre-print downloaded Oct 28 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.24.20218321