Rotation-based schedules in elementary schools to prevent COVID-19 spread: A simulation study

Abstract

Little is known about how various interventions impact the spread of covid-19 in schools. Here, we examined effects of different types of rotations in various testing contexts using an agent-based modified SIER model run on real contact data acquired in an elementary school in Czechia (624 schoolchildren, 55 teachers, 27k social contacts). The results show that weekly rotations of in-class and distance learning reduce the spread of covid-19 by >75%; regular low-sensitivity (<40%) antigen testing twice a week significantly reduces infections; and the density of revealed contact graphs for older pupils is 1.5 times higher than the younger pupils graph, the teachers network is yet an order of magnitude denser. The results imply that teachers play a disproportionate role in spreading covid-19 and that weekly rotations with regular testing are an effective preventive intervention that can help to keep schools open during a worsened epidemic situation.

School Virus Infection Simulator for customizing school schedules during COVID-19

“…Brom et al. [26] modeled the interactions among pupils and teachers in Prague as a multi-graph structure with an agent-based simulation. They investigated the impact of several school schedule types and of antigen and PCR test schedule types on reducing the spread.…”