Today, France, Germany and Switzerland all imposed stricter lockdown measures and kept schools open with no changes regarding recommended distancing measures. This means they believe keeping schools open is both safe and essential. Great news for the kids of Europe!
Here is a brief we did for NYC-DOH to help them think about moving from 2 meters to 1 in terms of the recommendation for physical distancing in schools. As many of you know – the difference between 1 and 2 meters is “make or break” in an urban or resource-poor setting – because of both space and staffing limitations.
While the city noted that the evidence was convincing and consistent with what they are seeing from surveillance data, it seems politics trumps evidence and schools in the city will remain hybrid for the foreseeable future.