School reopening without robust COVID-19 mitigation risks accelerating the pandemic

While returning to school as soon as possible is imperative for the education, social development, and mental and physical welfare of children, not enough has been done to make schools safer for students and staff.1 Without additional mitigations, increases in transmission are likely, this time with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 2021-03, Vol.397 (10280), p.1177-1178
Main Authors: Gurdasani, Deepti, Alwan, Nisreen A, Greenhalgh, Trisha, Hyde, Zoë, Johnson, Luke, McKee, Martin, Michie, Susan, Prather, Kimberly A, Rasmussen, Sarah D, Reicher, Stephen, Roderick, Paul, Ziauddeen, Hisham
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - prevention & control
Disease control
Disease transmission
Guidelines as Topic
Households
Humans
Infections
Multilayers
Pandemics
Risk
Schools
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
United Kingdom - epidemiology
Viral diseases
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Summary:While returning to school as soon as possible is imperative for the education, social development, and mental and physical welfare of children, not enough has been done to make schools safer for students and staff.1 Without additional mitigations, increases in transmission are likely, this time with more infectious and possibly more virulent variants, resulting in further lockdowns, school closures, and absenteeism. Yet the evidence cited for these arguments has serious limitations.4,5 Primary and secondary school closures have been associated with substantial reductions over time in the effective reproduction number (Rt) across many countries (including England) and time periods.6,7 In contrast, data from the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) 2020 COVID-19 Infection Survey show that the prevalence of infection among children aged 2–10 years (2%) and 11–16 years (3%) rose above the prevalence for all other age groups before the 2020 Christmas break (appendix p 4). Multi-layered mitigations can substantially reduce the risk of transmission within schools and into households.13 In the panel we summarise a set of recommendations that are in line with guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and practised in many countries to reduce the risk of transmission in schools and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on children and families.
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00622-X