Paula Lugones
01/26/2021 4:46 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 01/26/2021 4:52 PM
An exhaustive survey by the official
United States
health agency
on the impact of the coronavirus in schools revealed this Tuesday that there is little transmission of Covid-19 in establishments where the chinstrap and social distancing protocols are used.
It warns, however, that
some sports activities practiced inside buildings have caused infections
and should be reduced.
A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the main US body monitoring the pandemic, reviewed data from studies at home and abroad and found stark differences between what is happening. in schools and, for example, in nursing homes or high-density workplaces where it has spread rapidly.
"The preponderance of the available evidence from the school's fall semester (September through December) has been reassuring," wrote three CDC researchers in an article published Tuesday in the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
"There has been little evidence that schools have contributed significantly to the increase in community transmission," he added.
"There has been little evidence that schools have contributed significantly to increased community transmission."
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The review, which echoes the findings of other researchers, comes as many school districts in the United States - and other countries as well - are
debating whether and how to reopen schools
.
Also, President Joe Biden says that
reestablishing face-to-face classes is one of his top priorities
related to the pandemic.
The importance of the chinstrap
Another new CDC study, also released Tuesday, examined 17 rural schools (kindergarten and elementary) in Wisconsin and found that only seven of 191 COVID-19 cases were from school transmission.
The researchers noted that the students and staff at these establishments wore chinstraps almost all the time.
"The bottom line here is with the right prevention efforts ... we can keep transmission in schools and educational settings quite low," said Margaret A Honein, the lead author of the report.
"We didn't know it at the beginning of the year, but the data has really accumulated," he noted.
Pupils and teachers, with chinstrap and distance, in a New York high school, in a November image.
Photo: AP
He said that even in places with high infection rates, there is no evidence that schools transmit the virus at levels higher than those seen in the general community and that they can operate safely as long as precautions are employed.
The researchers also examined data from two international studies.
A report from Europe found that schools were not increasing community spread.
In Israel, however, there was a large outbreak at a secondary school last May.
The researchers noted that in this case, the classrooms were full, not everyone wore a mask, and an air conditioning system recycled indoor air in closed rooms.
The CDC recommends that schools require the use of a mask, allow a two-meter distance between people and
keep students in groups
to limit the number of people who must be quarantined in case of exposure.
A school in Milan, Italy, at the start of classes this month Photo: EFE
"With good prevention, we can safely reopen and keep more schools open," said Honein, leader of the CDC Department of State and Local Health Covid Task Force.
Indoor sports
The researchers said they were
much more concerned about sports played indoors
and other extracurricular activities that don't allow for distancing and wearing masks.
Another CDC report, also released Tuesday, described two high school wrestling tournaments in Florida in December, where 30 percent of the 130 athletes, coaches and umpires who participated were diagnosed with the virus.
Actual rates could be higher, the report noted, as fewer than half of the participants were tested.
A sign at an elementary school in Chicago, in the US, informs that classrooms will be opened with a rotating system.
Photo: AFP
Wrestling, the report noted, is an activity where distancing is not possible and wearing masks is not safe.
“The bottom line for me is really prioritizing the educational environment in person and making the tough decisions both in communities and in schools over other activities that we value but may have to postpone so as not to jeopardize our children's education,” he said. Honein in an interview.
The school system is highly decentralized in the United States and thus far each district runs independently.
Most private schools have returned to class with a “hybrid” or rotating
student system.
For example: of a grade of 30, 10 attend in person for a week and 20 watch the class virtually.
The teacher goes every day.
The groups rotate so that they have isolation for 14 days without going to school to avoid possible infections.
The state school system is more bureaucratic and more massive, and is where it is debated in some districts whether to return to the classroom or not.
Teachers in many districts are lobbying against going back to class, and some with strong unions have been able to slow down or prevent a return in some places.
In Chicago, for example, members of the Chicago Teachers Union refuse to accept a return to public schools.
A survey of 13,597 school districts by MCH Strategic Data, cited by the CDC, revealed that 17 percent of school districts were now fully open for in-person instruction and 51 percent used a hybrid model between face-to-face and online.
24 percent still teach fully online.
To try to reopen all schools, Biden has asked Congress for $ 130 billion to help offset the costs and promised better guidance from his administration on how to do it safely.
Biden says his goal is for most elementary schools to open within 100 days of taking office, though he has not said what the return will look like.
Washington, correspondent
CB
Look also
Coronavirus in the United Kingdom: Brits prepare for a summer without travel and the alarm grows for the depression in the children without classes
For PAHO, the evidence supports the return to the classroom, but it is necessary to evaluate "municipality by municipality"