Case study: Using research evidence to inform public health response in childcare and education settings

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, government officials around the world have had to determine if schools and early childhood education and care services could safely deliver on-campus learning and assess the contribution of schools to transmission of infection. An understanding of virus transmission and emerging variants in education settings was required to make evidence-based decisions.

In early 2020, the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) was rapidly commissioned through the NSW Health Emergency Response Priority Research funding stream to investigate COVID-19 cases and exposures in NSW educational settings. This included undertaking contact tracing, enhanced follow-up surveillance and opt-in swab and serology testing of greater than 30,000 close contacts over 2020 and 2021. The pre-existing and long-established close working relationship between researchers, NSW Health and the NSW Department of Education (over many years) enabled rapid commissioning of research, the development of collaborative research protocols that met public health, education and government decision makers’ needs, and swift research execution.

The project rapidly produced high-quality, comprehensive findings on transmission rates and risks in education settings that contributed to public health advice and government decisions in NSW, Australia and globally (Macartney et al. 2020). Findings were regularly reported to the Public Health Response Branch, the Department of Education’s COVID-19 Taskforce (as part of the NCIRS seminar series), and at numerous conferences. Strategies to reduce transmission risks were developed and implemented in tandem with research findings.

The study confirmed low rates of transmission in educational settings in 2020 and again with the emergence of new variants in 2021. This evidence supported decisions to resume on-campus learning in both 2020 and 2021.

The project supported positive social, educational and economic outcomes, including so that parents and carers could return to work, educational organisations could resume onsite services, and children and young people could resume face-to-face learning sooner, benefiting their education and social wellbeing.

The study continued during the 2021 Delta wave, finding that transmission in schools was still low despite being higher than the ancestral strain. The study also reported higher rates of transmission in staff and supported prioritising teachers and early childhood educators for vaccination and a return to face-to-face learning. The study continued to provide current, quality data to public health authorities, government and parents as Omicron emerged at the end of 2021 and into 2022, allowing on-campus learning to be maintained.

Reference:

Macartney K, Quinn HE, Pillsbury AJ et al 2020, Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Australian educational settings: a prospective cohort study, Lancet Child Adolesc Health, vol. 4, no. 11, pp. 807-16, DOI: 10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30251-0.