TY - JOUR
T1 - Modifications to student quarantine policies in K–12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies restores in-person education without increasing SARSCoV-2 transmission risk, January-March 2021
AU - COVID-19 Response Fieldwork Laboratory Teams
AU - Missouri School District Data Coordination Group
AU - Dawson, Patrick
AU - Worrell, Mary Claire
AU - Malone, Sara
AU - Fritz, Stephanie A.
AU - McLaughlin, Heather P.
AU - Montgomery, Brock K.
AU - Boyle, Mary
AU - Gomel, Ashley
AU - Hayes, Samantha
AU - Maricque, Brett
AU - Lai, Albert M.
AU - Neidich, Julie A.
AU - Tinker, Sarah C.
AU - Lee, Justin S.
AU - Tong, Suxiang
AU - Orscheln, Rachel C.
AU - Charney, Rachel
AU - Rebmann, Terri
AU - Mooney, Jon
AU - Rains, Catherine
AU - Yoon, Nancy
AU - Petit, Machelle
AU - Towns, Katie
AU - Goddard, Clay
AU - Schmidt, Spring
AU - Barrios, Lisa C.
AU - Neatherlin, John C.
AU - Salzer, Johanna S.
AU - Newland, Jason G.
AU - Dinh, Thu Ha
AU - Donovan, Catherine V.
AU - Foltz, Victoria
AU - Halpin, Jessica L.
AU - Lee, Sooji
AU - O’Hegarty, Michelle
AU - Steinberg, Jonathan
AU - Stevens-Emilien, Elaine
AU - Theodore, Shaniece C.
AU - Worrell, Caitlin M.
AU - Li, Yan
AU - Tao, Ying
AU - Uehara, Anna
AU - Zhang, Jing
AU - Greene, Sarah
AU - Hall, Jaimee
AU - Plattner, Alex S.
AU - Fitzpatrick, Tammy
AU - Williams, Mandy
AU - Fields, Amanda
AU - Pecoraro, Tim
AU - Botkin, Natalie
AU - Hancock, Glenn
AU - Wehr, Amy
AU - Grabeel, Jean
AU - Ann Neill, Lee
AU - Bell, Kashina
AU - Hardin-Bartley, Sharonica
N1 - Funding Information:
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services(https://health.mo.gov/) provided funding to Washington University in St. Louis to support this study (no grant #, authors: SM, SAF, BKM, MB, BM, AML, LAN, RCO, JGN). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Public Library of Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Objective To determine whether modified K–12 student quarantine policies that allow some students to continue in-person education during their quarantine period increase schoolwide SARSCoV-2 transmission risk following the increase in cases in winter 2020–2021. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study of COVID-19 cases and close contacts among students and staff (n = 65,621) in 103 Missouri public schools. Participants were offered free, saliva-based RT-PCR testing. The projected number of school-based transmission events among untested close contacts was extrapolated from the percentage of events detected among tested asymptomatic close contacts and summed with the number of detected events for a projected total. An adjusted Cox regression model compared hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy. Results From January–March 2021, a projected 23 (1%) school-based transmission events occurred among 1,636 school close contacts. There was no difference in the adjusted hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy (hazard ratio = 1.00; 95% confidence interval: 0.97–1.03). Discussion School-based SARS-CoV-2 transmission was rare in 103 K–12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies. Modified student quarantine policies were not associated with increased school incidence of COVID-19. Modifications to student quarantine policies may be a useful strategy for K–12 schools to safely reduce disruptions to in-person education during times of increased COVID-19 community incidence.
AB - Objective To determine whether modified K–12 student quarantine policies that allow some students to continue in-person education during their quarantine period increase schoolwide SARSCoV-2 transmission risk following the increase in cases in winter 2020–2021. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study of COVID-19 cases and close contacts among students and staff (n = 65,621) in 103 Missouri public schools. Participants were offered free, saliva-based RT-PCR testing. The projected number of school-based transmission events among untested close contacts was extrapolated from the percentage of events detected among tested asymptomatic close contacts and summed with the number of detected events for a projected total. An adjusted Cox regression model compared hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy. Results From January–March 2021, a projected 23 (1%) school-based transmission events occurred among 1,636 school close contacts. There was no difference in the adjusted hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy (hazard ratio = 1.00; 95% confidence interval: 0.97–1.03). Discussion School-based SARS-CoV-2 transmission was rare in 103 K–12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies. Modified student quarantine policies were not associated with increased school incidence of COVID-19. Modifications to student quarantine policies may be a useful strategy for K–12 schools to safely reduce disruptions to in-person education during times of increased COVID-19 community incidence.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140280629&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0266292
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0266292
M3 - Article
C2 - 36264919
AN - SCOPUS:85140280629
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 10 October
M1 - e0266292
ER -