Effects of School Closure on Transmission of COVID-19. A Rapid Systematic Review

Zana Faris Muhammed

doi:10.24017/covid.12

Authors

Zana Faris Muhammed Nursing department, Technical College of Health, Sulaimani Polytechnic University, Sulaimani, Iraq

Abstract

Globally school closure is one of the social distancing strategies used to mitigate transmission of pandemic novel corona virus (COVID-19) among school populations. However, there are uncertainties around when, how and for how long schools need to be closed. There is limited evidence for the impact of school closure on the number of cases and spread of COVID-19 to inform management of future outbreaks. Several databases were searched using an adapted search strategy to obtain studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A large number of studies were found and they were quality appraised. Eight good quality studies were identified and these were reviewed. The studies that contained the desired outcomes were three epidemiological studies, and five modeling studies using actual data that making assumptions about changes in transmission dynamics after school closure is applied. The results show that schools were closed for different timings related to the peak epidemics. School closure almost reduced the transmission of the COVID-19. Delay in closing schools and combinations with other control and management measures may affect the likelihood of drawing consistent conclusions about the effectiveness of school closure on COVID-19.

Keywords:

COVID-19, school closure, transmission

References

[1] WHO, "Coronavirus disease COVID-2019," Situation report, 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200527-covid-19-sitrep-128.pdf?sfvrsn=11720c0a_2.
[2] N. Halder, J. K. Kelso, and G. J. Milne, "Developing guidelines for school closure interventions to be used during a future influenza pandemic," BMC Infect. Dis., vol. 10, 2010.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-10-221
[3] H. Harapan et al., "Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A literature review," J. Infect. Public Health, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 667-673, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2020.03.019
[4] M. A. Potter et al., "School closure as an influenza mitigation strategy: How variations in legal authority and plan criteria can alter the impact," BMC Public Health, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 1, 2012.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-977
[5] B. Y. Lee et al., "Simulating school closure strategies to titigate an influenza epidemic," J. Public Heal. Manag. Pract., vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 252-261, 2010. ide. Nurse Education in Practice. 9. 10.1016/j.nepr.2008.09.002. .
https://doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0b013e3181ce594e
[7] K. Prem et al., "The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study," Lancet Public Heal., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. e261-e270, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033050
[8] J. Bayham and E. P. Fenichel, "Impact of school closures for COVID-19 on the US health-care workforce and net mortality: a modelling study," Lancet Public Heal., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. e271-e278, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30082-7
[9] S. Kim, Y. J. Kim, K. R. Peck, and E. Jung, "School opening delay effect on transmission dynamics of Coronavirus disease 2019 in Korea: Based on mathematical modeling and simulation study," J. Korean Med. Sci., vol. 35, no. 13, pp. 1-9, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e143
[10] J. Zhang et al., "Changes in contact patterns shape the dynamics of the COVID-19 outbreak in China," Science (80-. )., vol. 8001, p. eabb8001, 2020.
[11] T. Chang, J. Wu, and L. Chang, "Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID- research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this ScienceDirect Clinical characteris," J. Formos. Med. Assoc., no. January, 2020.
[12] M. SusannaEsposito and M. Nicola Principi, "School Closure During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic An Effective Intervention at the Global Level?," JAMAPediatrics, vol. 2020, pp. 2019-2020, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1892
[13] P. Vanhems, "SARS-CoV2 infection and primary school closure," Eurosurveillance, vol. 25, no. 15, pp. 5-6, 2020, doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.15.2000617.
https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.15.2000617
[14] E. Mahase, "Covid-19: schools set to close across UK except for children of health and social care workers," BMJ, vol. 368, no. March, p. m1140, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1140
[15] B. J. Cowling et al., "Impact assessment of non-pharmaceutical interventions against coronavirus disease 2019 and influenza in Hong Kong: an observational study," Lancet Public Heal., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. e279-e288, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30090-6
[16] N. M. Ferguson et al., "Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand," Imperial.Ac.Uk, no. March, pp. 3-20, 2020.