UMMS Affiliation
Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology
Publication Date
2021-11-16
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment | Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Education | Infectious Disease | Pediatrics | Virus Diseases
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission in K-12 schools was rare during in 2020-2021; few studies included Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-recommended screening of asymptomatic individuals. We conduct a prospective observational study of SARS-CoV-2 screening in a mid-sized suburban public school district to evaluate the incidence of asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), document frequency of in-school transmission, and characterize barriers and facilitators to asymptomatic screening in schools. Staff and students undergo weekly pooled testing using home-collected saliva samples. Identification of > 1 case in a school prompts investigation for in-school transmission and enhancement of safety strategies. With layered mitigation measures, in-school transmission even before student or staff vaccination is rare. Screening identifies a single cluster with in-school staff-to-staff transmission, informing decisions about in-person learning. The proportion of survey respondents self-reporting comfort with in-person learning before versus after implementation of screening increases. Costs exceed $260,000 for assays alone; staff and volunteers spend 135-145 h per week implementing screening.
Keywords
COVID-19, K-12 schools, SARS-CoV-2, asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 screening, in-school SARS-CoV-2 transmission, mitigation, prevention
Rights and Permissions
Copyright 2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
DOI of Published Version
10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100452
Source
Doron S, Ingalls RR, Beauchamp A, Boehm JS, Boucher HW, Chow LH, Corridan L, Goehringer K, Golenbock D, Larsen L, Lussier D, Testa M, Ciaranello A. Weekly SARS-CoV-2 screening of asymptomatic kindergarten to grade 12 students and staff helps inform strategies for safer in-person learning. Cell Rep Med. 2021 Nov 16;2(11):100452. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100452. Epub 2021 Oct 27. PMID: 34723225; PMCID: PMC8549440. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Cell reports. Medicine
Related Resources
PubMed ID
34723225
Repository Citation
Doron S, Ingalls RR, Beauchamp A, Boehm JS, Boucher HW, Chow LH, Corridan L, Goehringer K, Golenbock DT, Larsen L, Lussier D, Testa M, Ciaranello A. (2021). Weekly SARS-CoV-2 screening of asymptomatic kindergarten to grade 12 students and staff helps inform strategies for safer in-person learning. COVID-19 Publications by UMass Chan Authors. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100452. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/covid19/323
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons, Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Education Commons, Infectious Disease Commons, Pediatrics Commons, Virus Diseases Commons