Are schools drivers of COVID-19 infections-an analysis of outbreaks in Colorado, USA in 2020.
J Public Health (Oxf)
; 44(1): e26-e35, 2022 Mar 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1284895
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The impact of school closures/reopening on transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the wider community remains contested.METHODS:
Outbreak data from Colorado, USA (2020), alongside data on implemented public health measures were analyzed.RESULTS:
There were three waves (n = 3169 outbreaks; 61 650 individuals). The first was led by healthcare settings, the second leisure/entertainment and the third workplaces followed by other settings where the trajectory was equally distributed amongst essential workplaces, non-essential workplaces, schools and non-essential healthcare.Non-acute healthcare, essential and non-essential workplace experienced more outbreaks compared to education, entertainment, large-group-living and social gatherings.Schools experienced 11% of identified outbreaks, yet involved just 4% of total cases. Conversely, adult-education outbreaks (2%) had disproportionately more cases (9%).CONCLUSION:
Our findings suggest schools were not the key driver of the latest wave in infections. School re-opening coinciding with returning to work may have accounted for the parallel rise in outbreaks in those settings suggesting contact-points outside school being more likely to seed in-school outbreaks than contact points within school as the wave of outbreaks in all other settings occurred either prior to or simultaneously with the schools wave.School re-opening is a priority but requires mitigation measures to do so safely including staggering opening of different settings whilst maintaining low levels of community transmission.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Public Health (Oxf)
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Pubmed
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