COVID-19 Testing to Sustain In-person Instruction and Extracurricular Activities in High Schools — Utah, November 2020–March 2021

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lanier, William A. ; Babitz, Kendra D. ; Collingwood, Abigail ; Graul, Maggie F. ; Dickson, Sydnee ; Cunningham, Lexi ; Dunn, Angela C. ; MacKellar, Duncan ; Hersh, Adam L.
• Corporate Authors:
  Utah. Department of Health. ; Utah. State Board of Education. ; Utah School Superintendents Association. ; CDC COVID-19 Response Team. ; University of Utah. Department of Pediatrics. Division of Infectious Diseases.
• Description:
  What is already known about this topic? COVID-19–associated cessation of kindergarten through grade 12 in-person instruction and extracurricular activities can have negative social, emotional, and educational consequences for children.
  
  What is added by this report? Utah implemented two high school COVID-19 tTesting programs to sustain in-person instruction and extracurricular activities. During November 30, 2020–March 20, 2021, among 59,552 students who received tTesting, 1,886 (3.2%) had a positive result. These programs facilitated the completion of approximately 95% of high school extracurricular competition events and saved an estimated 109,752 in-person instruction student-days.
  
  What are the implications for public health practice? School-based COVID-19 tTesting should be considered part of a comprehensive Prevention strategy to identify SARS-CoV-2 infections in schools and sustain in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.
  
  Cessation of kindergarten through grade 12 in-person instruction and extracurricular activities, which has often occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, can have negative social, emotional, and educational consequences for children (1,2). Although preventive measures such as masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and improved ventilation are commonly used in schools to reduce Transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that causes COVID-19, and support in-person instruction (3–6), routine school-based COVID-19 tTesting has not been as widely implemented. In addition to these types of standard preventive measures, Utah health and school partners implemented two high school tTesting programs to sustain extracurricular activities and in-person instruction and help identify SARS-CoV-2 infections: 1) Test to Play,* in which tTesting every 14 days was mandated for participation in extracurricular activities; and 2) Test to Stay,† which involved school-wide tTesting to continue in-person instruction as an alternative to transitioning to remote instruction if a school crossed a defined outbreak threshold (3). During November 30, 2020–March 20, 2021, among 59,552 students tested through these programs, 1,886 (3.2%) received a positive result. Test to Play was implemented at 127 (66%) of Utah’s 193 public high schools and facilitated completion of approximately 95% of scheduled high school extracurricular winter athletics competition events.§ Test to Stay was conducted at 13 high schools, saving an estimated 109,752 in-person instruction student-days.¶ School-based COVID-19 tTesting should be considered as part of a comprehensive Prevention strategy to help identify SARS-CoV-2 infections in schools and sustain in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.
  
  Suggested citation for this article: Lanier WA, Babitz KD, Collingwood A, et al. COVID-19 Testing to Sustain In-Person Instruction and Extracurricular Activities in High Schools — Utah, November 2020–March 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 21 May 2021.
  
  mm7021e2.htm?s_cid=mm7021e2_w#contribAff
  
  mm7021e2-H.pdf
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent CoronaVirus Infections/Diagnosis CoronaVirus Infections/Prevention & Control COVID-19 Testing COVID-19/Diagnosis COVID-19/Prevention & Control Students
• Source:
  MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2020; v. 69 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:
  69
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8fa37d22d8f25f6a338a45323cf1600a2f90e5ec0d9abc77fb83c183cbb96b8447d77f23315c522b002cdc72d09116e0fe587249a2b30a1535367b5cf206add3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/106465/cdc_106465_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 185.84 KB ]