Schools Offer Similar Risk for COVID-19

The Government of Canada announced a study that found the risk of staff acquiring SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, in schools during 2020-2021 was no greater than their risk of acquiring the virus in day-to-day life in the community.

Researchers tested school staff for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies—a sign of prior infection—to determine how many had been infected with the virus, whether or not they had felt symptoms. Of the 1,556 school staff who had their blood sample tested, 2.3% tested positive for antibodies.

This percentage was similar to the number of infections in a reference group of blood donors matched by age, sex, and area of residence. The results confirm the low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among staff in the school setting.

These researchers were from BC Children’s Hospital, the University of British Columbia (UBC), and Vancouver Coastal Health examined COVID-19 infection among Vancouver School District.

“These findings show that, with appropriate mitigation strategies in place, in-person schooling is not associated with significantly increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission for classroom-based staff compared to members of the general population,” says Dr. Pascal Lavoie, principal investigator of the study, an investigator at BC Children’s Hospital, a pediatrician and Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UBC, in a press release.

“The results suggest that only a few teachers and school staff contracted SARS-CoV-2, and most assume that they did not contract it at school and thought they caught it from friends or family,” adds Dr. Lavoie.

This non-peer-reviewed study was published on June 18, 2021.