Teachers played key role in COVID spread at Georgia elementary schools, CDC study says

Teachers play an important role in the spread of COVID-19 at schools, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

The study released Monday investigated transmission of the coronavirus at a Georgia school district, which revealed nine clusters of COVID-19 cases in December and January. The clusters included 13 educators and 32 students at six elementary schools in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb.

“Educators might play a central role in in-school transmission networks,” the CDC said. “Preventing (virus) infections through multifaceted school mitigation measures and COVID-19 vaccination of educators is a critical component of preventing in-school transmission.”

Here are a few key findings of the study:

• Two clusters involved teacher-to-teacher transmission during meetings or lunches followed by an educator spreading the virus to students. This resulted in 15 of 31 “school-associated” cases.
• All nine clusters involved “less than ideal” social distancing with students less than 3 feet apart, though plastic dividers were put on desks.
• Mask use was “inadequate” by students in five clusters.
• Eight clusters involved teachers and probable educator-to-student spread.
• Small group instruction sessions when teachers worked in proximity to students may have occurred in seven clusters.

“The study highlights that preventing infections in educators is an important part of stopping the spread of COVID-19 in schools,” the CDC said.

The findings are similar to a study in the United Kingdom that determined the most common form of transmission was educator to educator, according to the CDC. Another study in Germany found the rate of transmission was three times higher when the first identified person with the virus was a teacher rather than a student.

“Measures to prevent (virus) infection among educators, including promotion of COVID-19 precautions outside of school, minimizing in-person adult interactions at school, ensuring mask compliance and physical distancing among educators when in-person interaction is unavoidable, and COVID-19 vaccination, when available, will likely reduce in-school transmission,” the CDC said.

Marietta City Schools Superintendent Grant Rivera told the Associated Press the district changed instruction in elementary schools to ensure students spend less than 15 minutes with teachers in small groups and now is encouraging teachers to stay apart during collaboration.

“We told teachers that all teacher collaboration should occur virtually,” Rivera told the AP.

The CDC study spanned 24 in-person school days from Dec. 1 to Jan. 22 with 2,600 students and 700 staff members. During this time period, the seven-day rolling average of cases per 100,000 people increased 300% in Cobb County, Georgia.