Covid-19 Incidence amongst Students at an International School with Strict Mitigation Measures at the Height of the Pandemic: a Retrospective Study
Keywords:
Antigen test kit, COVID-19 mitigation, Mask-use, School infection, School healthAbstract
The purpose of this research is to evaluate COVID-19 infection among students in an educational setting that reinforces COVID-19 mitigation measures at the peak of the pandemic. Between November 2021 and April 2022, a descriptive study was conducted at an international school in Nonthaburi, Thailand. The school’s COVID-19 mitigation measures were aligned with measures presented by the Thai Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education. Students who attended school on-campus were tested with a rapid antigen test kit (ATK) for COVID-19 twice a week according to the school surveillance protocol. The parents or guardians of the students were responsible for performing the ATK tests and providing the results via the school’s electronic database, with informed consent. The school’s team of registered nurses and medical director recorded the database and performed contact tracing via phone calls with the parents or guardians of the infected students. Of the 52,757 ATK tests performed, only 237 (0.45%) tests were positive, and no cases of reinfection were reported. Among the 237 students who tested positive, 32 (13.5%) had a close-contact history to COVID-19 inside the school, while the majority (86.5%) had close-contacts from outside the school, such as household members and within the local community. Close-contact was defined per the Ministry of Health’s guideline measures. Despite a surge in COVID-19 cases in the community, the implemented mitigation measures proved effective in reducing the spread of the virus in the school setting.
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