Even very young kids can socially distance at school

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-01-27 11:01

International

Measures to reduce COVID-19 spread in English primary schools reduced close in-person contacts by 50-80 per cent, according to UK research. Researchers surveyed teachers from 34 UK primary schools on close contacts before and after distancing measures. They found younger children saw contacts fall by 53 per cent, while in older children they fell 62 per cent. Contact between teaching and non-teaching staff reduced by 80 per cent “reducing close contact as far as feasible”.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Novel approach to evaluate contact patterns and risk mitigation for COVID-19 in English Primary Schools: application of Structured Expert Judgement

Royal Society Open Science

We have investigated the patterns of close contacts of children and staff within Primary Schools in England. We show that during June and July risk mitigation measures reduced these contacts by between 50 and 80%, thereby significantly reducing risk of COVID19 transmission. The study fills a major knowledge gap on the contact patterns of primary school age children.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Bristol, UK

Funder: There was no direct funding for the project but the support of the Royal Society education policy unit and the RAMP initiative for COVID-19 are acknowledged. We are much appreciate of the primary school leaders who volunteered to join the expert panel. Their enthusiasm, support and expert knowledge was paramount. The University of East Anglia fact-finding team of Jade Eyles, James Christie, Nicola Taylor and Martin Mangler are much appreciated. The project was completed under the auspices of the RAMP initiative of the Royal Society. Mike Cates is thanked for encouragement and advice. Two anonymous and constructive reviews led to significant improvements in the paper. Funding to L.D. and E.B.-P. from MRC grants MR/V038613/1 and MC-PC-19067 is acknowledged.

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