Screening Students and Staff for Asymptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Chicago Schools

Abstract

Objectives To assess rates of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 positivity in K-8 schools with risk mititgation procedures in place, and to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in school and household contacts of these positive individuals. Study design In this prospective observational study, screening testing for SARS-CoV-2 was performed by oropharyngeal swabbing and PCR in students and staff at K-8 private schools in high-risk Chicago zip codes. New COVID-19 diagnoses or symptoms among participants, household contacts, and non-participants in each school were queried. Results Among 11 K-8 private schools across 8 Chicago zip codes, 468 participants (346 students, 122 staff members) underwent screening testing. At the first school, 17 participants (36%) tested positive, but epidemiologic investigation suggested against in-school transmission. Only 5 participants in the subsequent 10 schools tested positive for an overall 4.7% positivity rate (1.2% excluding School 1). All but one positive test among in-person students had high PCR cycle threshold values, suggesting very low SARS-CoV-2 viral loads. In all schools, no additional students, staff, or household contacts reported new diagnoses or symptoms of COVID-19 during the two weeks following screening testing. Conclusions We identified infrequent asymptomatic COVID-19 in schools in high-risk Chicago communities and did not identify transmission among school staff, students, or their household contacts. These data suggest that COVID-19 mitigation procedures, including masking and physical distancing, are effective in preventing transmission of COVID-19 in schools. These results may inform future strategies for screening testing in K-8 schools.

Well‐Being of Children and Families in COVID‐19 Hotspots in Chicago

“…Generally, parents rated positive emotions frequently and even reported a significant decrease in irritability, loneliness, and isolation. Given the timing of our survey, a possible explanation for the positive perceptions of children's well‐being is that as the 2020‐2021 school year progressed and in‐classroom COVID‐19 transmission remained low, parents were reassured that in‐person learning was safe 8 . During most of the 2020‐2021 academic year, the local public school system was predominantly using remote instruction.…”

“…The contrasting approach by the Archdiocese school system allowed for a surveillance study, with an embedded longitudinal survey of parents, to assess the experiences of families with students in-school during the school year. 8 More specifically, this partnership allowed for the evaluation of the rates of asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) positivity in schools. [8][9][10] The study sampled families with students at schools located in high-risk Chicago communities, based on higher COVID-19 incidence rates by ZIP code compared to the city average during the 2020 to 2021 school year.…”

Prevention of Covid-19 Transmission in Islamic Boarding Schools (Pesantren): Literature Review

“…Third effort to prevent the covid 19 transmission in Pesantren is conducting Tracing-Testing-Therapy for students with covid 19 Indications. Three journals that support efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through conducting Tracing-Testing-Therapy for students with Indications of Covid 19 in Islamic boarding schools were presented by Tupper and Colijn (2021), Luth and Meriwijaya (2021), and Edward et al (2021). Edward et al (2021) and Tupper and Colijn (2021) specifically discussed preventing the transmission of covid 19 in the school environment.…”

“…Control and prevention of COVID-19 transmission in schools as part of the pesantren environment is also one of the effective efforts to prevent the wider transmission of COVID-19. Edward et al (2021) through a prospective observational study of 468 participants in the school environment stated that testing of symptomatic cases combined with contact tracing reduces transmission in school with a positive rate of 4.7% from January-March 2021. Another study was submitted by Tupper and Colijn (2021) through the Contrasting Literature study on crowdsourced data available through Covid E´coles Que´bec stated that testing a symptomatic individual in school is able to prevent large transmission clusters.…”

Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 circulation using saliva testing in school children in Rome, Italy

“…Spallanzani” was involved in the screening of saliva samples collected from students belonging to the local surveillance unit (ASL) RM3 of Rome. The use of saliva as an alternative sample for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection has been the focus of numerous discussions; scientific evidence emerged over time indicating that molecular tests performed on saliva had diagnostic sensitivity and specificity comparable to those observed with nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) ( Bordi L 2020 ; Butler-Laporte G 2021 ; Al Suwaidi H 2021 ), suggesting that saliva represents the first sample choice in community mass screening programs ( Ruggiero A 2020 ; Jurkutat A 2022 ; Edward PR 2021 ; Vogel S 2022 ).…”