Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2021 Dec;27(12):2120-2126.
doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01563-8. Epub 2021 Oct 27.

The impact of school opening model on SARS-CoV-2 community incidence and mortality

Affiliations
Observational Study

The impact of school opening model on SARS-CoV-2 community incidence and mortality

Zeynep Ertem et al. Nat Med. 2021 Dec.

Erratum in

Abstract

The role that traditional and hybrid in-person schooling modes contribute to the community incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections relative to fully remote schooling is unknown. We conducted an event study using a retrospective nationwide cohort evaluating the effect of school mode on SARS-CoV-2 cases during the 12 weeks after school opening (July-September 2020, before the Delta variant was predominant), stratified by US Census region. After controlling for case rate trends before school start, state-level mitigation measures and community activity level, SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates were not statistically different in counties with in-person learning versus remote school modes in most regions of the United States. In the South, there was a significant and sustained increase in cases per week among counties that opened in a hybrid or traditional mode versus remote, with weekly effects ranging from 9.8 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.7-16.1) to 21.3 (95% CI = 9.9-32.7) additional cases per 100,000 persons, driven by increasing cases among 0-9 year olds and adults. Schools can reopen for in-person learning without substantially increasing community case rates of SARS-CoV-2; however, the impacts are variable. Additional studies are needed to elucidate the underlying reasons for the observed regional differences more fully.

PubMed Disclaimer

Update of

References

    1. Viner, R. M. et al. School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: a rapid systematic review. Lancet Child Adolesc. Health 4, 397–404 (2020). - DOI
    1. Jackson, C., Vynnycky, E., Hawker, J., Olowokure, B. & Mangtani, P. School closures and influenza: systematic review of epidemiological studies. BMJ Open 3, e002149 (2013). - DOI
    1. Auger, K. A. et al. Association between statewide school closure and COVID-19 incidence and mortality in the US. JAMA 324, 859–870 (2020). - DOI
    1. Pan, A. et al. Association of public health interventions with the epidemiology of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. JAMA 323, 1915–1923 (2020). - DOI
    1. Haug, N. et al. Ranking the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 government interventions. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 1303–1312 (2020). - DOI

Publication types

Supplementary concepts

LinkOut - more resources