Amid the debate over the reopening of public schools that was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic for nearly a year, a new federal study on Monday indicated that when there were outbreaks on campus, they were driven primarily by infected teachers.
The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined nine case clusters in an elementary school district in Georgia in suburban Atlanta.
“Educators have been central to school transmission networks,” the study said. It was also noted that ‘all nine of the transmission groups required less than physical distance, and that five did not use the mask adequately by students.’
The CDC said the outbreaks of the study from December 1 to January 22 do not conflict with recent guidance or evidence that schools can reopen safely, even in communities where virus transmission is high, if they follow measures to wear face masks and to take physical distance.
“Previous research in other U.S. school districts has found that low transfer rates in schools can be maintained in the vicinity of a high prevalence in the community,” the report said, noting that there is a need for more awareness-raising messages. educators ‘improve’ on the risk of the virus from colleagues.
The nationwide debate over the reopening of schools has grown particularly fierce in California, where most public schools, especially in impoverished and large urban districts, are far behind private, charter and affluent public districts in the state and across the country to students return to the classroom.
As government Gavin Newsom, state lawmakers, district leaders and unions representing public school teachers argue about when and how to reopen schools, parents became frustrated and impatient as they watched children struggle with widely recognized online lessons. as a poor substitute for classes offered in person.
State lawmakers in the House on Monday held briefings on a legal proposal criticized by teachers’ unions and six of the state’s largest school districts, which advocates Newsom and parents for a faster return to school. The state Senate, where it is awaiting a hearing on the budget committee, will not take it up on Monday.
The proposal requires primary schools to reopen at least April 15 for hybrid part-time personal education when their infection rates drop to the state’s second highest red level. Newsom, whose own plan does not set a fixed reopening requirement, and parent groups have criticized the legislative proposal because it is not far enough to reopen schools quickly.
In the Georgia district, the CDC studied, 2,600 students and 700 staff members personally visited the school. The nine case groups involve 13 educators and 32 students at six of the eight primary schools in the district, or just under 2% of the staff and 1.2% of the students.
The CDC also said the findings were consistent with studies in the UK and Germany that found that the most common spread on campuses among adults, who were three times as likely to spread the virus on campus, was as students.
Eight of the nine case studies observed involved at least one educator and ‘probable educator to student transfer’. In four of the clusters, educators were the index case – the one who thought he was infected at first and the outbreak started. A student was the index case in only one group, and in the other four it could not be determined whether it started with a student or teacher.
Two clusters that accounted for nearly half of the school-related issues involved possible educator-to-educator transfer during personal meetings or lunches, followed by educator-to-student transfer in the classroom.
The study said 69 exposed household members of those with school-related cases were tested on COVID-19, and 18, or about one in four, were confirmed infected.
The authors noted that although plastic dividers were placed between students on the desks, due to the high number of students in the classroom and the building layout, they were less than three feet apart – half the standard of 6 feet set by the CDC recommended.
They also said that in seven groups distribution between educators and students could possibly take place during ‘small group teaching sessions in which educators worked close to students.’
And although the district required mask use in the classroom except while eating, and compliance during site visits was high, interviews in the outbreak investigation revealed that ‘lack of or insufficient mask use by students probably contributed to distribution in five groups’.
The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement on Monday that the study “contributes to a wealth of evidence showing that COVID-19 is transmissible in schools without the safety rails in place.”
“School buildings may be safe for teachers and children, but the low mitigation and testing and detection of layers must be implemented to limit the risk of transmission, with the availability of vaccines as another protective layer,” Weingarten said. “We hope school districts investigate this thoroughly.”