A global assessment of the impact of school closure in reducing COVID-19 spread

Prolonged school closure has been adopted worldwide to control COVID-19. Indeed, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization figures show that two-thirds of an academic year was lost on average worldwide due to COVID-19 school closures. Such pre-emptive implementation was predicated on the premise that school children are a core group for COVID-19 transmission. Using surveillance data from the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Anqing together, we inferred that compared with the elderly aged 60 and over, children aged 18 and under and adults aged 19–59 were 75% and 32% less susceptible to infection, respectively. Using transmission models parametrized with synthetic contact matrices for 177 jurisdictions around the world, we showed that the lower susceptibility of school children substantially limited the effectiveness of school closure in reducing COVID-19 transmissibility. Our results, together with recent findings that clinical severity of COVID-19 in children is lower, suggest that school closure may not be ideal as a sustained, primary intervention for controlling COVID-19. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Data science approach to infectious disease surveillance’.

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Impact of School Closure Due to COVID-19 on the Social-Emotional Skills of Japanese Pre-school Children

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.739985 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Satomi Doi ◽

Keitaro Miyamura ◽

Aya Isumi ◽

Takeo Fujiwara

Keyword(s):

School Children ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

School Closure ◽

Social Emotional ◽

School Closures ◽

Emotional Skills ◽

School Activities ◽

The Social ◽

The Difference ◽

The Impact

Objective: This study examines the impact on the social-emotional skills of Japanese pre-school children from downsizing of school activities in conjunction with voluntary school closures due to the first wave of COVID-19, in 2020.Methods: Participants included 32 children aged 4–5 years old from three pre-schools in Tokyo, Japan, where strict lockdown was not implemented and voluntary school closure was recommended. Child social-emotional skills was assessed by classroom teachers using Devereux Student Strengths Assessment mini (DESSA-mini) three times: November 2019, January 2020 (before the COVID-19), and March 2020 (during the first COVID-19 wave). All pre-schools implemented voluntary school closures from March 2nd, and two schools (school A and B) canceled school recitals, while one school (school C) allowed for it to be held on March 4th, with precautions in place to prevent the spread of infection. Repeated measures ANOVA were performed to examine the difference between the T scores of the DESSA-mini three pre-schools before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Results: In school C, children showed stable T scores of the DESSA-mini, whereas children in school A and B showed lower T scores of the DESSA-mini during COVID-19 than before it started. The interaction effects between time and pre-schools were found (F = 7.05, p < 0.001).Conclusion: Our findings suggest that school recitals in pre-schools were important to maintaining children's social-emotional skills during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A global assessment of the impact of school closure in reducing COVID-19 spread

10.21203/rs.3.rs-53593/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph T. Wu ◽

Shujiang Mei ◽

Sihui Luo ◽

Kathy Leung ◽

Di Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

School Children ◽

Global Assessment ◽

School Closure ◽

Surveillance Data ◽

Clinical Severity ◽

Core Group ◽

Primary Intervention ◽

The World ◽

The Impact ◽

Transmission Models

Abstract Prolonged school closure has been adopted worldwide to control COVID-19. Such preemptive implementation was predicated on the premise that school children are a core group for COVID-19 transmission. Using surveillance data from the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Anqing, we inferred that children aged 18 or below are only around half as susceptible to COVID-19 infection as adults. Using transmission models parameterized with synthetic contact matrices for 152 jurisdictions around the world, we showed that the lower susceptibility of school children substantially limited the effectiveness of school closure in reducing COVID-19 transmissibility. Our results, together with recent findings that clinical severity of COVID-19 in children is lower, suggest that school closure may not be ideal as a sustained, primary intervention for controlling COVID-19.

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The Impact of COVID-19 School Closure on Child and Adolescent Health: A Rapid Systematic Review

Children ◽

10.3390/children8050415 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (5) ◽

pp. 415

Author(s):

Sonia Chaabane ◽

Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy ◽

Karima Chaabna ◽

Ravinder Mamtani ◽

Sohaila Cheema

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Children And Adolescents ◽

Adolescent Health ◽

Children With Disabilities ◽

Child And Adolescent ◽

Emergency Department Visits ◽

School Closure ◽

School Closures ◽

Child And Adolescent Health ◽

The Impact

School closures during pandemics raise important concerns for children and adolescents. Our aim is synthesizing available data on the impact of school closure during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on child and adolescent health globally. We conducted a rapid systematic review by searching PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar for any study published between January and September 2020. We included a total of ten primary studies. COVID-19-related school closure was associated with a significant decline in the number of hospital admissions and pediatric emergency department visits. However, a number of children and adolescents lost access to school-based healthcare services, special services for children with disabilities, and nutrition programs. A greater risk of widening educational disparities due to lack of support and resources for remote learning were also reported among poorer families and children with disabilities. School closure also contributed to increased anxiety and loneliness in young people and child stress, sadness, frustration, indiscipline, and hyperactivity. The longer the duration of school closure and reduction of daily physical activity, the higher was the predicted increase of Body Mass Index and childhood obesity prevalence. There is a need to identify children and adolescents at higher risk of learning and mental health impairments and support them during school closures.

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Modeling the impact of school reopening and contact tracing strategies on Covid-19 dynamics in different epidemiologic settings in Brazil

10.1101/2021.10.22.21264706 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marcelo Eduardo Borges ◽

Leonardo Souto Ferreira ◽

Silas Poloni ◽

Ângela Maria Bagattini ◽

Caroline Franco ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Disease Transmission ◽

Transmission Rate ◽

Disease Incidence ◽

Demographic Data ◽

School Closure ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Contact Tracing ◽

School Closures ◽

Infection Transmission ◽

The Impact

Among the various non–pharmaceutical interventions implemented in response to the Covid–19 pandemic during 2020, school closures have been in place in several countries to reduce infection transmission. Nonetheless, the significant short and long–term impacts of prolonged suspension of in–person classes is a major concern. There is still considerable debate around the best timing for school closure and reopening, its impact on the dynamics of disease transmission, and its effectiveness when considered in association with other mitigation measures. Despite the erratic implementation of mitigation measures in Brazil, school closures were among the first measures taken early in the pandemic in most of the 27 states in the country. Further, Brazil delayed the reopening of schools and stands among the countries in which schools remained closed for the most prolonged period in 2020. To assess the impact of school reopening and the effect of contact tracing strategies in rates of Covid–19 cases and deaths, we model the epidemiological dynamics of disease transmission in 3 large urban centers in Brazil under different epidemiological contexts. We implement an extended SEIR model stratified by age and considering contact networks in different settings – school, home, work, and elsewhere, in which the infection transmission rate is affected by various intervention measures. After fitting epidemiological and demographic data, we simulate scenarios with increasing school transmission due to school reopening. Our model shows that reopening schools results in a non–linear increase of reported Covid-19 cases and deaths, which is highly dependent on infection and disease incidence at the time of reopening. While low rates of within[&ndash]school transmission resulted in small effects on disease incidence (cases/100,000 pop), intermediate or high rates can severely impact disease trends resulting in escalating rates of new cases even if other interventions remain unchanged. When contact tracing and quarantining are restricted to school and home settings, a large number of daily tests is required to produce significant effects of reducing the total number of hospitalizations and deaths. Our results suggest that policymakers should carefully consider the epidemiological context and timing regarding the implementation of school closure and return of in-person school activities. Also, although contact tracing strategies are essential to prevent new infections and outbreaks within school environments, our data suggest that they are alone not sufficient to avoid significant impacts on community transmission in the context of school reopening in settings with high and sustained transmission rates.

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How did Autistic Children, and their Parents, Experience School Transition during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

10.31234/osf.io/8kzsn ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Aimee Code ◽

Umar Toseeb ◽

Kathryn Asbury ◽

Laura Fox

Keyword(s):

School Transition ◽

School Closure ◽

School Transitions ◽

Autistic Children ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

School Closures ◽

Social Distancing ◽

New School ◽

The Uk ◽

The Impact

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant school closures, social distancing measures, and restrictions placed on routine activities, the start of the academic year in September 2020 was a unique time for those transitioning to a new school. This study aimed to explore the experiences of parents who supported autistic children making a school transition in 2020, and to examine what impact parents perceived the COVID-19 pandemic had on their child’s school transition. Emphasis was placed on identifying facilitating factors that had benefitted school transitions, and barriers, which had negatively impacted these experiences. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 parents of autistic children in the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis was carried out to identify themes in interview data. Parents reported a variety of experiences, and factors that were perceived as facilitatory to some were observed to be barriers by others. For some parents, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted aspects of school transitions. For example, school closure in March 2020, being unable to visit their child’s new school, and social distancing measures were discussed as being barriers to an easy transition. However, other parents identified these factors as being facilitatory for their child or reported that these circumstances created opportunities to approach the school transition in a unique, improved manner. This paper sheds light on the heterogeneity of experiences and perceptions of parents of autistic children, and highlights the need to examine the impact of COVID-19 on school transitions, including practices which may be advantageous to retain.

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Reactive school closure weakens the network of social interactions and reduces the spread of influenza

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1821298116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (27) ◽

pp. 13174-13181 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Maria Litvinova ◽

Quan-Hui Liu ◽

Evgeny S. Kulikov ◽

Marco Ajelli

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Influenza Season ◽

School Closure ◽

Transmission Model ◽

Modeling Framework ◽

School Closures ◽

Student Absenteeism ◽

Contact Survey ◽

Closure Policy ◽

The Impact

School-closure policies are considered one of the most promising nonpharmaceutical interventions for mitigating seasonal and pandemic influenza. However, their effectiveness is still debated, primarily due to the lack of empirical evidence about the behavior of the population during the implementation of the policy. Over the course of the 2015 to 2016 influenza season in Russia, we performed a diary-based contact survey to estimate the patterns of social interactions before and during the implementation of reactive school-closure strategies. We develop an innovative hybrid survey-modeling framework to estimate the time-varying network of human social interactions. By integrating this network with an infection transmission model, we reduce the uncertainty surrounding the impact of school-closure policies in mitigating the spread of influenza. When the school-closure policy is in place, we measure a significant reduction in the number of contacts made by students (14.2 vs. 6.5 contacts per day) and workers (11.2 vs. 8.7 contacts per day). This reduction is not offset by the measured increase in the number of contacts between students and nonhousehold relatives. Model simulations suggest that gradual reactive school-closure policies based on monitoring student absenteeism rates are capable of mitigating influenza spread. We estimate that without the implemented reactive strategies the attack rate of the 2015 to 2016 influenza season would have been 33% larger. Our study sheds light on the social mixing patterns of the population during the implementation of reactive school closures and provides key instruments for future cost-effectiveness analyses of school-closure policies.

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Closed, Bused, Mixed: A Literature Review on the Impact of Rural School Closure; Effects of Busing on Rural Students; and Student Performance in Small Schools and Mixed-Age Classes

Rural Review: Ontario Rural Planning, Development, and Policy ◽

10.21083/ruralreview.v2i1.6074 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tatiana Zakharova

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Student Performance ◽

Rural Schools ◽

Large Scale ◽

Small Schools ◽

Rural School ◽

School Closure ◽

Rural Students ◽

School Closures ◽

The Impact

In 2000, Lauzon and Leahy completed a literature review on rural schools and educational reform, concluding that rural schools were indeed worth saving. In 2017, I conducted a literature review with the goal of offering an update to that article, investigating the post-2001 research on the impact of rural school closures; the effects of bussing of rural students to/from school; and student performance in small schools and mixed-grade classes. The results were mixed and contradictory, equal in their puzzling to the complexity of defining what is “rural” and what is “small school”. While some of the researchers continue to point out the unique place of local schools in rural settings, many also note the lack of large-scale studies into the impact of rural school closures, especially the impact on students – even "who pays and the price they pay, is always of interest" (bell hooks)… or is it?

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Lower State COVID-19 Deaths and Cases with Earlier School Closure in the U.S.

10.1101/2020.05.09.20096594 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Emily Rauscher

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

The Elderly ◽

School Closure ◽

Lower State ◽

Infection Rates ◽

School Closures ◽

Symptomatic Infection ◽

Per Capita ◽

The Relationship ◽

The U.S

This study quantifies the relationship between school closure timing and COVID-19 deaths and cases in the general population in all U.S. states. COVID-19 has higher symptomatic infection rates among the elderly, suggesting school closures could be unrelated to transmission. However, predicting daily cumulative COVID-19 deaths by state, earlier school closure is related to fewer deaths per capita and slower growth in deaths per capita. Results are similar for COVID-19 cases per capita.

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Australian state influenza notifications and school closures in 2019

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.21145.1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 1899

Author(s):

Anna Mae Scott ◽

Mina Bakhit ◽

Justin Clark ◽

Melanie Vermeulen ◽

Mark Jones ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Goodness Of Fit ◽

Negative Binomial ◽

School Closure ◽

School Closures ◽

Chi Square ◽

Exact Test ◽

Australian State ◽

Chi Square Test ◽

The Impact ◽

Vacation Period

Background: The impact of school holidays on influenza rates has been sparsely documented in Australia. In 2019, the early winter influenza season coincided with mid-year school breaks, enabling us the unusual opportunity to examine how influenza incidence changed during school closure dates. Methods: The weekly influenza data from five Australian state and one territory health departments for the period of week 19 (mid-May) to week 35 (early September) 2019 were compared to each state’s public school closure dates. We used segmented regression to model the weekly counts and a negative binomial distribution to account for overdispersion due to autocorrelation. The models’ goodness-of-fit was assessed by plots of observed versus expected counts, plots of residuals versus predicted values, and Pearson’s Chi-square test. The main exposure was the July two-week school vacation period, using a lag of one week. The effect is estimated as a percent change in incidence level, and in slope. We also dichotomized the change in weekly counts into decreases versus increases (or no change). The proportion of decreases were then compared for each of three periods (pre-vacation, vacation, post-vacation) using Fishers exact test. Results: School holidays were associated with significant declines in influenza incidence. The models showed acceptable goodness-of-fit. The numbers and percentages of decreases in weekly influenza counts from the previous week for all states combined were: 19 (33%) pre-vacation; 11 (92%) decreases during the vacation; and 19 (59%) decreases post-vacation (P=0.0002). The first decline during school holidays is seen in the school aged (5-19 years) population, with the declines in the adult and infant populations being smaller and following a week later. Conclusions: Given the significant and rapid reductions in incidence, these results have important public health implications. Closure or extension of holiday periods could be an emergency option for state governments.

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Public health structures attendance during the Ebola outbreak in Guéckédou, Guinea

Epidemiology and Infection ◽

10.1017/s0950268816000728 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 144 (11) ◽

pp. 2338-2344 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

F. MOISAN ◽

A. TRAORE ◽

D. ZOUMANIGUI ◽

J. Y. FEINDOUNO ◽

A. M. SAGNO ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Disease Surveillance ◽

Ebola Virus ◽

Virus Disease ◽

Median Number ◽

Public Healthcare ◽

Infectious Disease Surveillance ◽

Intestinal Schistosomiasis ◽

Prevention Programmes ◽

Number Of Visits ◽

The Impact

SUMMARYThe Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa may affect healthcare attendance. We describe, in the Guinean prefecture of Guéckédou, trends in attendance of public healthcare structures and the main reported diagnoses over the year following the EVD outbreak notification (March 2014). Monthly numbers of visits and main diagnoses such as malaria, schistosomiasis and measles reported by Guéckédou health centres and health posts were described from January 2012 to March 2015. The median number of visits was 15 724/month. From 1 April to 30 September 2014 (EVD outbreak peak), 90 947 visits were reported, representing decreases of 4·8% and 7·4% compared to 2013 and 2012, respectively. Following December 2014 (last EVD notification in Guéckédou), visits increased from 12 540 in January to 16 032 in March 2015. Malaria seasonality was observed in 2014 with 22 519 notifications from 1 April to 31 July. No seasonality was observed for intestinal schistosomiasis (median 485 cases/month); however, a peak was notified in March 2014 (824 cases). Over the study period, all measles cases were notified in 2015 (183 cases). Reduction in healthcare attendance in Guéckédou was modest during the EVD outbreak. Enhanced infectious disease surveillance is a challenge in this context, due to the impact of EVD on traditional prevention programmes.

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