Back-to-school after the Labor Day weekend could mean fresh spread of coronavirus unless schools take strong action to keep the virus in check, doctors and education experts are warning.
August saw an explosion of Covid-19 cases when some schools resumed in-person classes without mask measures in place and tens of thousands of students and staff were forced into quarantine. Some classrooms even returned to online learning temporarily. It could happen again. Virus is still circulating at unabated levels in most communities across the country, with the Delta variant causing more than 98% of all infections nationwide. Therefore, the risk of Covid-19 outbreaks occurring again within schools this week appears to be the same -- unless mitigation measures are in place, Dr. Tina Tan, a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and a former board member for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told CNN.
"One thing we saw earlier in the month of August is that there were many schools that opened but didn't have mask mandates in place and were not using protective mitigation protocols, and we saw a number of outbreaks that happened in those situations where the school opened and then closed like a week later because there were so many teachers and students that got infected, " Tan said.
"It is hoped that when schools open after Labor Day, that these people will be smarter and they'll have mask mandates in place and use protective mitigation protocols in order to prevent the potential to have future outbreaks occur in the school setting, " she said. "We know that there are going to be cases that occur, but there are methods to decrease the number of potential cases that might occur. "
Back-to-school after the Labor Day weekend could mean fresh spread of coronavirus unless
schools
take strong action to
keep
the virus in
check
, doctors and education experts are warning.
August
saw
an explosion of Covid-19 cases when
some
schools
resumed in-person classes without mask measures in
place
and tens of thousands of students and staff
were forced
into quarantine.
Some
classrooms even returned to online learning
temporarily
. It could happen again. Virus is
still
circulating at unabated levels in most communities across the country, with the Delta variant causing more than 98% of all infections nationwide.
Therefore
, the
risk
of Covid-19 outbreaks occurring again within
schools
this week appears to be the same -- unless mitigation measures are in
place
, Dr. Tina Tan, a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University's
Feinberg
School
of Medicine and a former board member for the Infectious Diseases Society of America,
told
CNN.
"
One thing we
saw
earlier in the month of August is that there were
many
schools
that opened
but
didn't have mask mandates in
place
and were not using protective mitigation protocols, and we
saw
a number of outbreaks that happened in those situations where the
school
opened and then closed like a week later
because
there were
so
many
teachers and students that
got
infected,
"
Tan said.
"
It
is hoped
that when
schools
open after Labor Day, that these
people
will be
smarter and
they'll have mask mandates in
place
and
use
protective mitigation protocols in order to
prevent
the potential to have future outbreaks occur in the
school
setting,
"
she said.
"
We know that there are going to be cases that occur,
but
there are methods to decrease the number of potential cases that might occur.
"