How Safe Are Our Schools ?

Schools are opening. Children are still ineligible for vaccination. How to keep our children safe while they are in schools ? How to make our schools Pandemic safe ?

Here is a case example recently published in the MMWR on August 27, 2021. The public health investigation is amazing and an eye opener.

Link to the article in MMWR is given below.

[The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) series is prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under US department of health And Human Services (HHS). It is getting published every week since 1930 and is the main vehicle for public health information and recommendations of USA.]
RK Mahapatra

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7035e2.htm

It happened in an elementary school of Marin County of California in May 2021.It was pre-Delta period in USA till that date.

The school was running with pandemic restrictions.

Most of the staff and teachers were vaccinated.
Mask was mandatory
Windows on both sides were always open allowing cross ventilation.
The School had Hepa filter in addition.
Students are sitting at 6 feet apart.
Students were ineligible for vaccination.

On 19th may, One of the teacher became symptomatic but continued teaching for 2 more days.

She tested positive on 21 May. She was unvaccinated.

In the class room, she sometimes had removed her mask to read aloud to the students.

This index case resulted in total 27 cases. ( One is the teacher herself)
12 students from her class tested positive.
The infection rate was 80% in the first 2 rows.
Infection rate was 28% in the last 3 rows.
6 students from other classes tested positive.
8 among siblings and parents tested positive.

Whole gene Sequencing (WGS) was carried out for 18 samples. Analysis came out 100% positive for Delta.

Of the adults affected, 3 were fully vaccinated

Analysis:

Around April-May, Alpha affection was tapering off in US and Delta had not been recognised. This case was an eye opener for CDC. How much infective this delta variant can be ? It can escape the vaccine protection.

This case should be a milestone for us to make our In-School Learning Pandemic safe.

Minimum Requirement:

Our schools must provide a Safe Zone for our kids. Our schools must meet the following criteria.

All staff and teachers should be vaccinated.
Provision of bilateral windows for optimum cross ventilation.
Windows should remain open throughout.
Masks should be mandatory for all.
At least 6 feet distance should be maintained between each student. Classes should be small.
Students should be sensitised about the correct Covid protocol and also be told about all the misinformations circulating in the social media.
School administration should be alert in preventing breach of Covid protocol among kids in the classroom and also during games and breaks.
Symptomatic should be allowed to stay home.

How many schools can conform to the above standard ? Certainly education year 2021-22 is going to be more difficult for our kids than the year gone by.

Peace be upon all our kids in school!

Peace be upon all who look after the children!

Is your elementary school pandemic safe ?

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