The Covid Variant in Schools: What to Know - The New York Times

The news came just as the first school districts were preparing to reopen; children in Atlanta and some of its suburbs head back to the classroom this week.

For some parents, teachers and officials, keeping schools open when a new, poorly understood virus was circulating seemed like an unacceptable risk.

And with vaccination rates highly uneven, and most decision-making left up to local officials, the variant adds new uncertainty to the coming school year — and makes it even more critical for schools to take safety precautions as they reopen, scientists said.

Studies in North Carolina, Utah, Missouri and elsewhere revealed that when schools layered several kinds of safety measures — some combination of masking, symptom screening, distancing, improved ventilation, virus testing, handwashing and dividing students into smaller groups — transmission rates in schools were even lower than they were in the surrounding community.

These low rates may stem, in part, from the fact that children under 10 seem to be less likely to transmit the virus than older children and adults are.

Roughly twice as transmissible as the original version of the virus, Delta has fueled a rise in infections and hospitalizations, especially in areas of the country where vaccination rates are low.

Recent data suggests that people who are infected with Delta may carry a thousand times as much virus — which could make them more contagious and for longer — as those who catch the original version of the virus.

And those vaccinated people who are infected with Delta can carry high levels of the virus in their noses and throats, which means they may be able to readily transmit it.

Schools with high vaccination rates are likely to have far fewer people who are infected with the virus and carry or spread it in the classroom.

But the guidelines also leave many decisions up to local officials, who are told to make decisions about when to tighten or loosen restrictions based on data about local case and vaccination rates.

But districts that open without safety measures in place are taking a real risk, Dr.

Given the patchwork of policies and uneven vaccination rates across the country, experts said they would not be surprised if school safety varies widely this fall.

“I do think that there will be risks of infections when school districts decide to not follow any recommendations,” Dr.

There is not yet good, solid data on how Delta affects young children, but there is no evidence that Delta is specifically targeting them.

Still, because a large number of adults have been vaccinated, children may make up an increasing share of Delta cases

In schools or districts that do not have mask mandates, parents can provide some degree of protection by ensuring that their children, at least, wear masks to school, Dr