State health officials share studies providing guidance on resuming in-person school
At a news conference Thursday, the Washington state Department of Health presented a study that is informing guidance on resuming in-school learning.
But in the near term, the current statewide spike in cases has the state’s recommendation for in-school learning on hold.
While the decision to open schools is a local decision in Washington state, medical and health experts have been looking at the numbers to see if there could be any changes to the benchmarks to safely bring students back. But first, the state must again reduce the number of new cases.
“We all need to commit to this. We bent the curve once before and we can do it again,” Dr. Kathy Lofy, the state Health Officer, said. “We understand people are tired and have pandemic fatigue. We completely understand but it’s important to do what we can so we can get kids back in school.”
A state report affirms that while there are risks associated with returning to full, in-person instruction, the risks could be significantly reduced through school-based countermeasures such as hybrid scheduling and a phased-in approach that brings back K-5 grades first. The report by the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) quantifies how various diagnostic screening scenarios could help reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission associated with reopening schools.
Here are the four major takeaways from what they study showed.
If schools can implement countermeasures and community transmission is low, the value of testing people for COVID-19 is limited. The analysis looked at several different testing strategies using PCR and rapid antigen tests, both individually and in combination.
Transmission in schools is greatly reduced through a combination of school-based countermeasures and hybrid or phased-in scheduling. Routine diagnostic screening of asymptomatic people can, however, have an impact on reducing transmission if schools are a significant source of infection. Daily symptom screening followed by diagnostic testing and contact tracing remain important along with other countermeasures.
The number of in-person days lost compared to a typical 5-day school week is largely due to scheduling, not people staying home to quarantine or isolate. Frequent screening with antigen tests does slightly increase in-person days lost, but less than 5% of days lost are due to health concerns, including false-positive diagnostic screening results.
The report reaffirms the importance of reducing community transmission and implementing countermeasures prior to reopening K-12 schools for in-person learning. Countermeasures that are essential are masking, cohorting students, daily symptom screening, follow-up diagnostic testing, contact tracing, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and improved ventilation. Without countermeasures, up to 45% of teachers and staff and 33% of students could become infected in the first three months; countermeasures reduce the risk to less than 2%, even with a full schedule of five days of in-person classes.
“The report supports our guidance that full in-person learning is not wise in places where COVID-19 transmission levels remain high,” Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID-19 response at DOH, said in a statement.
“However, the findings of this modeling indicate that it is possible to carefully resume some in-person learning for some students, especially younger students, while keeping the risk of transmission in our schools relatively low if strong health and safety measures are in place.”
The report’s authors noted that, as with all modeling, the results depend on assumptions based on the best science and data available. Here are some “what-if” scenarios that look at how some risks could be much higher.
If young children are found to be equally as susceptible as adults to COVID-19 infection (contrary to current evidence that indicates young children are less susceptible), this could generate a near three-fold increase in the three-month infection rate. The increase, however, can also be mitigated by regular diagnostic screening.
If community transmission increases after schools reopen, due to parents and guardians returning to work, the impact could be greater.
If daily symptom screening is not implemented or isn’t as effective as assumed, diagnostic testing would be needed.
While the studies offer a road map back to school, community spread now is the major roadblock. Fehrenbach stressed the need to remember all proper COVID safety measures as a way to have everybody in the state doing their part as the fall surge rises.
“We all have to double down our efforts, wear our masks and watch our distance,” Fehrenbach said.
“We know that humans need connections, we really encourage people to choose activities and social connections that mean the most to them. If we want to open schools and get more kids back to schools, if we want to celebrate the holidays with a few close friends and family, we have to double down our efforts right now.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 2:09 PM with the headline "State health officials share studies providing guidance on resuming in-person school."
