ABSTRACTINTRODUCTION: In the era of data-driven decision-making, an unacceptable haziness and inconsistency surrounds the yearlong scientific and public debate on the school closure policy in the COVID-19 pandemic mitigation efforts. Further search was undertaken by screening citations of articles found in the original search, and through Google Scholar and ResearchGate. RESULTS: Overall, evidence shows that opening schools and keeping them open in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is possible, although behaviourally challenging and unfeasible if educational facilities or testing services are inadequate. Contrary to other respiratory viruses, children are not chief targets of SARS-CoV-2 infection, transmission and disease. It also appears that the second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread in the WHO European region has been unrelated to school re-opening.

Source: New York Times December 12, 2021 02:01 UTC