Going back to school after Labor Day weekend could mean a new spread of the coronavirus unless schools take firm steps to control the virus, doctors and education experts warn.
An explosion of Covid-19 cases occurred in August when some schools resumed face-to-face classes without mask measures and tens of thousands of students and staff were forced to quarantine in some states. Some classrooms even returned to online learning temporarily.
It could happen again.
There has been no slowdown in virus circulation in most communities across the country, with the Delta variant causing more than 98% of all infections nationwide.
So the risk of Covid-19 outbreaks back in schools this week seems to be the same feature as schools implementing mitigation measures, said Dr. Tina Tan, a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. University and former board member of the Society of Infectious Diseases of America, told CNN.
“One thing we saw in early August is that there were a lot of schools that were opening but they didn’t have mask mandates and they didn’t use protection mitigation protocols, and we saw a number of outbreaks that happened in those situations in that the school opened and then closed like a week later because there were a lot of teachers and students who got infected, ”Tan said.
“When schools are opened after Labor Day, these people are expected to be smarter and have mask mandates and use protection mitigation protocols to prevent future outbreaks at school.” he said. dit. “We know there will be cases that will occur, but there are methods to reduce the number of potential cases that can occur.”
The chances of a school being kept open safely amid the ongoing pandemic depend not only on the mitigation measures the school has, but also on the amount of coronavirus spread to the surrounding community and whether the community practices mitigation strategies, associated by Noelle Ellerson Ng. he told CNN the executive director of advocacy and governance for the Association of School Superintendents.
“It’s about the decisions that schools make and whether or not they can do some physical or social distancing, or whether or not they have masks. But schools are also a microcosm of the wider community,” Ng said. “What is your vaccination rate in the eligible population? What is the general practice of broader mitigation strategies in the community? All of this is related. School opening work does not take place in a silo.”