New Study: School Openings and Community Spread

Jan 12, 2021, 3:58 PM

(from the 74 Million) Last week, a team of researchers from Tulane University released a paper examining the effects of school reopenings on COVID-19 hospitalizations. Their study, using national data, identified a threshold — 36 to 44 hospitalizations per 100,000 people per week — below which opening schools did not increase levels of community virus spread. Above that level, however, the researchers could not rule out the possibility that in-person learning might spread COVID-19, and another recent study found that reopening schools in such areas does tend to increase caseloads. “As of mid-December … 58% of counties were below that threshold, so in the safe zone,” Douglas Harris, a Tulane professor.

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