Extremely Low COVID-19 Transmission Rate in North Carolina Schools

Local school district leaders in North Carolina approached faculty from Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, seeking to understand better the scientific underpinnings of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus mitigation strategies and further guide policies reopening. In response to this request, faculty at Duke and the University of North Carolina (NC) developed the ABC Science Collaborative and conducted a study.

The American Academy of Pediatrics published an early version of this study on January 16, 2021, that found 'In the first nine weeks of in-person instruction in NC schools during 2020, there was a minimal within-school secondary transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

These researchers examined eleven school districts in NC, with nearly 100,000 students/staff. Of these, there were 773 community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections documented by molecular testing.

North Carolina Health department's staff determined an additional 32 infections were acquired within schools during the nine weeks through contact tracing. Each case was independently adjudicated for community or within-school acquisition by local health departments, said this study.