Abstract
AbstractAs part of a multi-year project that monitored illness-related school closures, we conducted systematic daily online searches from July 27, 2020–June 30, 2022, to identify public announcements of COVID-19-related school closures (COVID-SCs) in the US lasting ≥1 day. We explored the temporospatial patterns of COVID-SCs and analyzed associations between COVID-SCs and national COVID-19 surveillance data. COVID-SCs reflected national surveillance data: correlation was highest between COVID-SCs and both new PCR test positivity (correlation coefficient, r = 0·73, CI: 0·56, 0·84) and new cases (r = 0·72, CI: 0·54, 0·83) in school year (SY) 2020-21, and with hospitalization rates among all ages (rs = 0·81, CI: [0·67, 0·89]) in SY 2021-22. The number of reactive COVID-SCs during SYs 2020-21 and 2021-22 greatly exceeded previously observed numbers of illness-related reactive school closures in the US, notably being nearly 5-fold greater than reactive closures observed during the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic (H1N1pdm09 virus).Article summary lineCOVID-19-related school closures occurred annually in the US and their temporal patterns mirror the general patterns of COVID-19 activity at the national level as observed through routine COVID-19 epidemiological surveillance.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
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