{"id":151434,"date":"2021-01-10T22:04:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T19:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/swiss-school-closures-cut-covid-spread-study\/"},"modified":"2021-01-10T22:04:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T19:04:11","slug":"swiss-school-closures-cut-covid-spread-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/swiss-school-closures-cut-covid-spread-study\/","title":{"rendered":"#Swiss school closures cut Covid spread: study"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Swiss school closures cut Covid spread: study<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Switzerland’s decision in the spring to shutter schools was one of the most effective measures in reducing mobility and thus also transmission of COVID-19, a study showed Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology<\/a> in Zurich, ETH, determined that the closure of Swiss schools last March was responsible for cutting mobility by more than a fifth. <\/p>\n

“School closures reduced mobility by 21.6 percent,” Stefan Feuerriegel, an ETH professor of management information systems who headed the study, told AFP in an email.<\/p>\n

“School closures reduce mobility, (which) then reduces new cases” of COVID-19, he said.<\/p>\n

His team analysed some 1.5 billion movements in Swiss telecommunication data between February 10 and April 26 last year to evaluate the impact on mobility as various anti-COVID measures were introduced.<\/p>\n

In decentralised Switzerland, its 26 cantons introduced measures at different paces before a country-wide partial lockdown, including school closures, was ordered on March 16.<\/p>\n

Schools across the country remained closed for about two months before gradually opening up again.<\/p>\n

The study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, found school closures ranked third in terms of reducing mobility.<\/p>\n

At the top of the list was a ban on gatherings of more than five people, which was seen slashing mobility by 24.9 percent, and the closure of restaurants, bars and non-essential shops, which caused people to move about 22.3 percent less, the study shows.<\/p>\n

Feuerriegel said it was not surprising that school closures had such a big impact on people’s movements.<\/p>\n

“If schools are closed, we can expect a large change in behaviour,” he said, pointing out that “not only will kids stay home, but sometimes it also requires their parents to change their mobility as well.”<\/p>\n

School closures have been among the most controversial measures introduced around the world to help rein in the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Children are far less likely to develop severe illness from COVID-19 than older people, but it remains unclear how much they transmit the virus.<\/p>\n

The ETH study does not address that, but indicates that school closures can significantly reduce transmission by prompting people to move about and mingle less.<\/p>\n

“Our analysis confirms school closure as a measure to slow the spread, through reduced mobility,” Feuerriegel said.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news<\/a> on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Swiss school closures cut Covid spread: study (2021, January 10)
\n retrieved 10 January 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2021-01-swiss-school-closures-covid.html<\/p>\n

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