CDC study: Schools mostly safe to open with proper precautions

Schools operating in person have experienced scant transmission of coronavirus, particularly when proper precautions are employed, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Tuesday.

The CDC researchers, who wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said indoor athletics have led to infections and should be curtailed if schools want to operate safely.

A new @CDCMMWR finds that K-12 schools can limit the spread of #COVID19 through masks & other preventive measures, even with high rates of COVID-19 in the community. More: https://t.co/IHzsYH8Wms. pic.twitter.com/JcQIqxm5pB

— CDC (@CDCgov) January 26, 2021

“As many schools have reopened for in-person instruction in some parts of the U.S. as well as internationally, school-related cases of covid-19 have been reported, but there has been little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission,” the scientists wrote.

NEW: @CDC study looking at in-person instruction in Wisconsin this fall finds even with aggressive community spread of coronavirus, only **3.7%** of 191 cases were linked to school.

KEY POINT: "No infections among staff members were found to have been acquired at school." pic.twitter.com/VEbB2eRyQ0

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) January 26, 2021

School officials must be willing to impose on their faculty limits in other settings — such as indoor dining, bars or poorly ventilated gyms — as well as encourage mask wearing and proper social distancing in order to keep infection rates low in the community at large, the researchers said.

CDC is clear: No indoor dining if we want to reopen schools. #COVID19

? Let’s prioritize schools over bars. https://t.co/2P0maKKQ4a pic.twitter.com/Q4ko0xuydI

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 26, 2021

“It’s not going to be safe to have a pizza party with a group of students,” Margaret Honein, a member of the CDC’s covid-19 emergency response team and the first author of article, told the New York Times.

The report added “there is much hope on the horizon for a safer environment for schools and school-related athletic activities during the 2021/22 school year” with the rate of vaccination increasing and infection rates appearing to hold steady or decline in some communities.