Low SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Elementary Schools — Salt Lake County, Utah, December 3, 2020–January 31, 2021

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hershow, Rebecca B. ; Wu, Karen ; Lewis, Nathaniel M. ; Milne, Alison T. ; Currie, Dustin ; Smith, Amanda R. ; Lloyd, Spencer ; Orleans, Brian ; Young, Erin L. ; Freeman, Brandi ; Schwartz, Noah ; Bryant, Bobbi ; Espinosa, Bobbi ; Nakazawa, Yoshinori ; Garza, Elizabeth ; Almendares, Olivia ; Abara, Winston E. ; Ehlman, Daniel C. ; Waters, Keith ; Hill, Mary ; Risk, Ilene ; Oakeson, Kelly ; Tate, Jacqueline E. ; Kirking, Hannah L. ; Dunn, Angela ; Vallabhaneni, Snigdha ; Hersh, Adam L. ; Chu, Victoria T.
• Corporate Authors:
  CDC COVID-19 Response Team. ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)Epidemic Intelligence Service. ; Utah. Department of Health. ; Granite School District (Salt Lake City, Utah) ; University of Utah Health Sciences Center. Health and Economic Recovery Outreach (HERO) Project. ; Utah. Public Health Laboratories. ; General Dynamics Information Technology. ; Salt Lake County (Utah). Health Department.
• Description:
  What is already known about this topic? Data suggest that school-associated SARS-CoV-2 Transmission is low.
  
  What is added by this report? SARS-CoV-2 tTesting was offered to 1,041 school contacts of 51 index patients across 20 elementary schools in Salt Lake County, Utah. In a high community Transmission setting, low school-associated Transmission was observed with a 0.7% secondary attack rate. Mask adherence was high, but students’ classroom seats were <6 ft apart and a median of 3 ft apart.
  
  What are the implications for public health practice? These findings add to evidence that in-person elementary schools can be opened safely with minimal in-school Transmission when critical Prevention strategies including mask use are implemented, even though maintaining ≥6 ft between students’ seats might not be possible.
  
  School closures affected more than 55 million students across the United States when implemented as a strategy to prevent the Transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that causes COVID-19 (1). Reopening schools requires balancing the risks for SARS-CoV-2 infection to students and staff members against the benefits of in-person learning (2). During December 3, 2020–January 31, 2021, CDC investigated SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in 20 elementary schools (kindergarten through grade 6) that had reopened in Salt Lake County, Utah. The 7-day cumulative number of new COVID-19 cases in Salt Lake County during this time ranged from 290 to 670 cases per 100,000 persons.† Susceptible§ school contacts¶ (students and staff members exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in school) of 51 index patients** (40 students and 11 staff members) were offered SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tTesting. Among 1,041 susceptible school contacts, 735 (70.6%) were tested, and five of 12 cases identified were classified as school-associated; the secondary attack rate among tested susceptible school contacts was 0.7%. Mask use among students was high (86%), and the median distance between students’ seats in classrooms was 3 ft. Despite high community incidence and an inability to maintain ≥6 ft of distance between students at all times, SARS-CoV-2 Transmission was low in these elementary schools. The results from this investigation add to the increasing evidence that in-person learning can be achieved with minimal SARS-CoV-2 Transmission risk when multiple measures to prevent Transmission are implemented (3,4).
  
  Suggested citation for this article: Hershow RB, Wu K, Lewis NM, et al. Low SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Elementary Schools — Salt Lake County, Utah, December 3, 2020–January 31, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 19 March 2021.
  
  mm7012e3.htm?s_cid=mm7012e3_w
  
  mm7012e3-H.pdf
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Child Cooperative Behavior CoronaVirus Infections/Transmission COVID-19/Transmission Disease Outbreaks/Prevention & Control Disease Transmission, Infectious/Prevention & Control Masks Public Health Schools School Teachers Students

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• Source:
  MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2021; v. 70 Early Release
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Utah
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• Volume:
  70
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:14fc822aaa403b0db9ea8c0b61a64ed9228c5705cc99ea1598efad83b1cb04f605930af8c05c6d52407c38e7a6b73683fa607ff598e0abef89ed9d8b87004d20
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/104305/cdc_104305_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 235.80 KB ]