Outer Banks Times

A Nags Head resident questioned a report that said risks for children were low in returning to school since adult teachers had to occupy the same space.

When three schools and a childcare center shut down in Australia because of confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the infection didn’t spread throughout the 735 students and 128 staff who came in contact with those nine students and nine teachers who tested positive in 15 schools, Allen Cheng, a professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Monash University, wrote in a June 25 article that Medical Xpress published. None of the teachers or staff contracted the coronavirus from those cases. One high school child and one from a primary school may have caught it from those initial cases.

“The research still suggests that while children can be infected with COVID-19, it is uncommon. They also don't seem to pass the disease on as efficiently as adults do, and cases of child-to-child infection are uncommon. And when children do get infected, they don't seem to get very sick,” Cheng wrote in the Medical Xpress article.

Researchers don’t know why the coronavirus is more common in adults.

“When we do find COVID-19 cases in children, we don't usually find cases of child-to-child transmission. But of course, we still need to go through the process of managing each case as it arises,” Cheng wrote in the Medical Xpress article.

That drew North Carolina resident Randy Cartwright’s attention. He asked in a comment on Medical Xpress’s Facebook page if a teacher tests positive do they need to quarantine for two to three weeks and if so, does the school system cover their sick leave?

Since teachers in upper grades normally handle up to five classes a day, if one teacher has contact with 30 students per class, do the 150 students all need to quarantine also?

“Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests?” Cartwright asked on Facebook. He wanted to know where they’d be tested and does that mean the rest of their family members also need testing? And how are they notified?

Cartwright’s concerns stretch beyond what happens with the students and teachers. What if someone in the teacher’s household contracts the coronavirus, he asked?

“Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?” he asked on Facebook in his comment.

Cheng shared some of his concerns.

“A bigger concern around schools is how adults congregate. Schools now have some version of physical distancing in the staff room and on school grounds to limit the risk of transmission between adults,” Cheng wrote in the Medical Xpress article.

Parents don’t enter school grounds and are asked not to congregate at the school gate, though being outside and having short periods of contact help reduce the risk.

“If there are ongoing cases in the community, it is likely that cases will continue to occur in students or teachers, and schools will need to have contingency plans for this,” Cheng wrote in the Medical Xpress article.