@misc{10481/66908,
year = {2021},
month = {1},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10481/66908},
abstract = {Personal contacts drive COVID-19 infections. After being closed (23 March 2020) UK primary schools partially re-opened on 1 June 2020 with social distancing and new risk mitigation strategies. We conducted a structured expert elicitation of teachers to quantify primary school contact patterns and how contact rates changed upon re-opening with risk mitigation measures in place. These rates, with uncertainties, were determined using a performance-based algorithm. We report mean number of contacts per day for four cohorts within schools, with associated 90% confidence ranges. Prior to lockdown, younger children (Reception and Year 1) made 15 contacts per day [range 8.35] within school, older children (Year 6) 18 contacts [range 5.55], teaching staff 25 contacts [range 4.55] and non-classroom staff 11 contacts [range 2.27]. After re-opening, the mean number of contacts was reduced by 53% for young children, 62% for older children, 60% for classroom staff and 64% for other staff. Contacts between teaching and non-teaching staff reduced by 80%. The distributions of contacts per person are asymmetric with heavy tail reflecting a few individuals with high contact numbers. Questions on risk mitigation and supplementary structured interviews elucidated how new measures reduced daily contacts in-school and contribute to infection risk reduction.},
organization = {Royal Society education policy unit},
organization = {RAMP initiative for COVID-19},
organization = {UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)

Medical Research Council UK (MRC)
	
MR/V038613/1
MC-PC-19067},
publisher = {The Royal Society Publishing},
keywords = {Schools},
keywords = {COVID-19},
keywords = {Expert judgement},
keywords = {Transmission},
title = {A novel approach for evaluating contact patterns and risk mitigation strategies for COVID-19 in English primary schools with application of structured expert judgement},
doi = {10.1098/rsos.201566},
author = {Sparks, R. S. J. and Scarrow, Jane Hannah},
}