Social network-based cohorting to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in secondary schools. A simulation study in classrooms of four European countries.

Autor/inn/en	Kaiser, Anna Karoline; Kretschmer, David; Leszczensk, Lars
Titel	Social network-based cohorting to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in secondary schools. A simulation study in classrooms of four European countries.
Quelle	In: The lancet. Regional health, (2021) 8, Art. 100166, 9 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Beigaben	Literaturangaben
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2666-7762
DOI	10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100166
Schlagwörter	Gruppenbildung; Geschlechterbeziehung; Klassengröße; Schulalltag; Sekundarbereich; Schüler; COVID-19; Infektionsschutz; Pandemie; Soziales Netzwerk; Deutschland; England; Niederlande; Schweden
Abstract	Background: Operating schools safely under pandemic conditions is a widespread policy goal. [The authors] analyse the effectiveness of classroom cohorting, i.e., the decomposition of classrooms into smaller isolated units, in inhibiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in European secondary schools and compare different cohorting strategies. Methods: Using real-world network data on 12,291 adolescents collected in classrooms in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden in 2010/2011, they apply agent-based simulations to compare the effect of forming cohorts randomly to network-based cohorting. Network-based cohorting attempts to allocate out-of-school contacts to the same cohort to prevent cross-cohort infection more effectively. [The authors] consider explicitly minimizing out-of-school cross-cohort contacts, approximating this information-heavy optimization strategy by chained nominations of contacts, and dividing classrooms by gender. They also compare the effect of instructing cohorts in-person every second week to daily but separate in-person instruction of both cohorts. Findings: [The authors] find that cohorting reduces the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in classrooms. Relative to random cohorting, network-based strategies further reduce infections and quarantines when transmission dynamics are strong. In particular, network-based cohorting inhibits superspreading in classrooms. Cohorting that explicitly minimizes cross-cohort contacts is most effective, but approximation based on chained nominations and classroom division by gender also out perform random cohorting. Every-second-week instruction in-person contains outbreaks more effectively than daily in-person instruction of both cohorts. Interpretation: Cohorting of school classes can curb SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in the school context. Factoring in out-of-school contacts can achieve a more effective separation of cohorts. Network-based cohorting reduces the risk of outbreaks in schools and can prevent superspreading events. Funding: None. (Orig.).
Erfasst von	DIPF \| Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, Frankfurt am Main
Update	2021/4