Schools reopening and the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study from Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

Since the first reported case of COVID-19 in Brazil, the public and private educational system started to close. Up to November 2020, scientific discussions about the return of schooling activities have been rarely performed by the national scientific community and police-makers. The great delay of school returning in Brazil contrasts with successful international strategies of school reopening worldwide and seems counterintuitive with the reopening of non-essential activities. Here, important issues to be considered before and during school reopening are reviewed and discussed. COVID-19 testing is essential to avoid disease spreading, but high cost of individual RT-qPCRs impairs an extensive testing strategy for school returning. To reduce costs and increase the speed of diagnosis, we tested the efficiency of a pooled-sample PCR strategy in a cohort of the educational staff in the city of Macaé/RJ, finding five asymptomatic individuals (0,66%) among the 754 people tested. Thus, a polled-sample PCR testing strategy of the educational staff might prevent infection spreading in schools at a reasonable cost. We discuss how our test strategy could be coupled with internationally recognized safety rules to allow for a safe school return and how countries from different world regions are dealing with educational activities during COVID-19 pandemic.

The long-term dynamics of serum antibodies against SARS-CoV-2

“…However, in this study, the patients did not report symptoms of COVID-19 or did not perform a RT-qPCR more the once time during the seventh months analyzed, indicating that they may not had a reinfection. However, this hypothesis cannot be discarded, because some patients are asymptomatic ( Pozzobon et al, 2022 ). Another two hypothesis which could explain positive samples of IgM after first month is concerning a persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection in some patients, culminating in a persistent positive production of IgM antibodies as reported by some authors ( Choudhary et al, 2022 ).…”

COVID-19 Mitigation in a K-12 School Setting: A Case Study of <em>Avenues: The World School </em>in<em> </em>New York City

“…A case study of community-based school reopening in Seoul, Korea, described the implementation of multiple layered safety measures, including masking, frequent disinfection, desk spacing, thermal imaging, improved ventilation measures, and active case monitoring 17 . A similar case study conducted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, examined a pool testing strategy for PCR testing, finding that pool testing, in combination with measures such as masking, increased hygiene, and contact mitigation, could be an effective reopening strategy, due to the very low prevalence rate found in widespread testing of 1,500 individuals 18 . Additionally, a study examining the association between ventilation and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Marche, Italy, found that with mechanical ventilation, the relative risk of infection decreased by at least 74%, which validated the need for high IAQ to reduce the risk of airborne disease transmission 19 .…”