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Covid spread rare in schools with masking: Study

All schools in the pilot study required students, teachers, staff and visitors to wear masks while on campus or buses.

Covid spread rare in schools with masking: Study

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Children and parents make cosmic kaleidoscopes during the Mid-Autumn Moon Family Festival event held at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York, the United States, Sept. 22, 2018. The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York hosted its annual Mid-Autumn Moon Family Festival on Saturday, celebrating the upcoming Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival in a fun-filled way. (Xinhua/Wang Ying/IANS)

In a finding that could bring huge relief to parents, researchers have found that wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and frequent hand-washing have kept in-school Covid-19 transmission low.

The pilot study, conducted in the US state of Missouri, was aimed at identifying ways to keep elementary and secondary schools open and safe during the pandemic.

The findings, published in the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, mirror those of schools in other states, demonstrating that Covid-19 prevention efforts can significantly curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among students, teachers and staff.

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“This work is imperative because keeping kids in school provides not only educational enrichment but also social, psychological and emotional health benefits, particularly for students who rely on school-based services for nutritional, physical and mental health support,” said senior author Johanna Salzer, a veterinary medical officer with the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

The pilot study involved 57 schools in the Pattonville School District in St. Louis County and the Springfield Public School District in Greene County in southwest Missouri, as well as two private schools in St. Louis County.

All schools in the pilot study required students, teachers, staff and visitors to wear masks while on campus or buses.

Other safety measures included a focus on hand hygiene, deep cleaning of facilities, physical distancing in classrooms, daily symptom screenings for Covid-19, installing physical barriers between teachers and students, offering virtual learning options, and increasing ventilation.

“Schools can operate safely during a pandemic when prevention strategies are followed,” said one of the study’s leading researchers, Jason Newland, Professort at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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