As schools reopen, experts still say quarantines are still necessary

Millions of children are back in the classroom for the new school year, but most aren't vaccinated yet. With children now accounting for more than a quarter of weekly Covid-19 cases nationwide, many communities are turning to a familiar public health tool: quarantines.

 

Health experts agree that quarantines work, but also stress the importance of in-person learning for children's development. Now many communities are struggling to toe the line between keeping schools open and keeping those who are potentially infectious at home.

 

The spread of Covid-19 has created disruptions and challenges for schools already this year.

 

At least 44,556 students and staff have quarantined in Florida's major school districts since the start of the new school year.

 

"If you are trying to stop a disease that is rampaging through a community, killing people who don't have to die, you really have to use quarantine," Dr. Christoph Diasio, a North Carolina pediatrician, told CNN.

 

Research has shown that quarantine measures can help reduce the spread of the virus in school and community settings. A research review, which included 32 studies focused on Covid-19, found that with quarantine, the number of people infected with coronaviruses could be reduced by between 44% and 96%.

 

However, others, such as former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlie,b have advocated for alternate measures to avoid quarantines.

 

He has described how a "test-to-stay" strategy, which schools in states including Illinois and Kentucky are trying this year, can help prevent entire classrooms of people from having to quarantine.

 

"There's a whole movement around designing protocols that actually allow kids to stay in school, even after a positive case is turned over," Gottlieb said. "Rather than quarantining large cohorts of children, what you do is you just implement serial testing around the exposure."