School-based measures and the COVID-19 pandemic (search done on 8 October 2020)
Citation: Krishnaratne S, Pfadenhauer LM, Coenen M, et al. Measures implemented in the school setting to contain the COVID‐19 pandemic: a scoping review. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2020;(12):CD013812.
What is this? During the COVID-19 pandemic, various measures have been put in place in schools to try to reduce spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In this Cochrane rapid scoping review, the authors searched for studies of measures to reopen schools, keep schools open or both, during the COVID-19 pandemic. They did not restrict their searches by date, type or language of publication and did the search on 8 October 2020. They included 42 studies, including experimental/quasi‐experimental (2 studies), observational (9) and mathematical modelling designs (31).
This scoping review informed the development of a rapid Cochrane review of the effectiveness of measures implemented in the school setting to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, for which the Evidence Aid summary is available here.
What was found: At the time of this review, a wide range of school‐based measures designed to contain COVID‐19 had been evaluated. There were three broad intervention categories: organizational measures to reduce SARS‐CoV‐2 transmission, structural/environmental measures to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and surveillance and response measures to detect SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. This information will be used to inform the development of further rapid reviews.
At the time of this review, most studies assessed SARS‐CoV‐2 transmission‐related outcomes, while some assessed healthcare use, other health outcomes or societal and economic outcomes.
This summary was prepared by Mike Clarke, edited by Mike Clarke and finalized by Mike Clarke.