Report details school safety steps that may reduce COVID spread, saying rates too high
Safety measures in Washington schools to counter pandemic may be able to effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19, but not at the current levels of community transmission, a report said Wednesday.
The report from the Institute for Disease Modeling simulated different strategies for reopening using King County data, but said “we expect our results could be applied broadly.”
It focused on information as of June 15, which does not account for the rise in cases since then.
The report said in part: “We found that school reopenings with no countermeasures may lead to a doubling of the COVID attack rate in the population over the first three months of the school year, but that a combination of mask usage, physical distancing, hygiene measures, classroom cohorting, and symptomatic screening, testing and tracing of students and teachers may be able to effectively reduce or even mitigate epidemic spread, depending upon the level of community transmission in the model.”
It concluded: “The more conservative we are with reopening in the workplace and community and the more proactive we are with testing and contact tracing, the more likely it is that we will be able to reopen schools.
“In particular, recent case data collected since this report was drafted show exponential growth in COVID-19 burden and indicate that levels of disease activity following the move to Phase II are too high to support school reopening.”
Dan Klein, senior research manager with the Institute for Disease Modeling, said at a virtual press conference Wednesday, “What happens outside of schools is even more important than what happens inside of schools.”
Lacy Fehrenbach, the state Department of Health’s deputy secretary for COVID-19 response, said to reopen schools people across the state need to use masks, social distance, limit gatherings and wash their hands.
“We very, very much want to reopen schools for some level of in-person learning in the fall,” she said at the press conference. “And we’re also very concerned about the rising level of COVID-19 activity throughout Washington state and what that means for reopening schools in a little more than a month.”
The report said: “If community activity rises above a 70% mobility threshold from activity levels in mid-June, no amount of school intervention will prevent the epidemic from growing. That said, the results also suggest that if community activity levels remain at or below 70% of pre-COVID baseline, there may be some room to reopen schools, if we implement mask usage, physical distancing and safe hygiene measures, classroom cohorting, screening and some follow-up diagnostic testing and contact tracing.”
In response to the report, Washington Education Association president Larry Delaney said in a statement: “We would very much prefer going back to school buildings this fall. However, with cases on the rise, and hitting new peaks in our state, we have serious concerns about the health and safety risks posed to students, educators, families and our communities. ...
“We encourage all Washingtonians to help us all get back by practicing social distancing, wearing facial coverings, and helping reduce COVID transmission rates in our communities,” Delaney said.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 11:28 AM.
