Effective contact tracing and virus testing are essential for the safe reopening of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to two new studies.
journal, found that there are low levels of coronavirus transmission in schools when public health measures are in place.
"We urgently need large-scale research programmes to carefully monitor the impact of schools reopening… Only in this way can we take the most appropriate measures to mitigate the risks and allow us to reassure parents, pupils, and teachers alike that schools are safe to attend," Edmunds said. If only 40 per cent of contacts could be traced, these figures would need to increase to 87 per cent and 75 per cent respectively, according to the study.
"…School reopening is likely to go hand in hand with more adults returning to work and other relaxed measures across society. Therefore, our results are reflective of a broader loosening of lockdown, rather than the effects of transmission within schools exclusively, suggesting an effective test–trace–isolate offers a feasible alternative to intermittent lockdown and school closures to control the spread of COVID-19," Panovska-Griffiths said in the release.
The authors acknowledged that there were some limitations to the study. Although they modeled scenarios to resemble the U.K., some of the assumptions are based on data from different settings. Researchers interviewed all those infected or their guardians at diagnosis to track their attendance at school as well as any contact with other people during the time they were infectious. Close contacts were monitored with regular phone calls and asked to quarantine for 14 days. If they began to show symptoms, they were asked to take a test.
Researchers found that these enhanced safety measures, in addition to effective contact testing strategies, suggest that schools and nurseries do not pose a high risk for onward transmission of the virus.
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