EP 05 - Assessing Classroom and Laboratory Spread of COVID-19 in a University After Elimination of Physical Distancing

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

2:15 PM – 2:35 PM

Location: W103 A/B; Orange County Convention Center

CE: 0.33

CNE Credits: 0.33
CME Credits: 0.33

Presenter(s)

Terri Rebmann, PhD, RN, CIC, FAPIC (she/her/hers)

Director and Professor
Institute for Biosecurity, Saint Louis University
Jacksonville, Florida

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

PDF Handouts

Co-Author(s)

TL

Travis Loux, PhD

Associate Professor
Saint Louis University
AG

Ashley Gomel, MPH (she/her/hers)

COVID-19 Prevention Services Manager
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri
KL

Kaeli Lugo, BS

Student worker
Saint Louis University
FB

Firas Bafageeh, MPH

Student worker
Saint Louis University
Haley Elkins, MPH, CHES, CPH (she/her/hers)

Community Emergency Planner
St Louis County Department of Public Health
LA

Lauren Arnold, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor
Saint Louis University

Moderator(s)

Trent MacAllister, MPH, MS, CIC (he/him/his)

Infection Preventionist
Washington State Department of Health, Washington

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Co-Moderator(s)

Christine Zirges, DNP, ACNS-BC, CIC, FAPIC

System Director Infection Prevention
SSM Health
St Louis, Missouri

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Background: Physical distancing was one of the most difficult COVID-19 mitigation strategies to implement for institutes of higher education (IHE), and many IHEs dropped this protocol in fall 2021 despite the unknown risk of doing so. The purpose of this study was to assess classroom spread of COVID-19 at an IHE without classroom physical distancing.

Methods: Data was collected during the fall 2021 semester at a medium-sized private IHE. Universal masking, robust contact tracing, a vaccination requirement policy, and enforced testing were in place. Exposures were classified as classroom versus social/non classroom. ANOVA and chi-squared tests were used to identify significant relationships between demographic and other characteristics and COVID-19 test result. Logistic regression was conducted to investigate the relationship between exposure type and test result.

Results: There were 148 student and faculty cases identified with 1,660 associated close contacts (mean = 11.2 close contacts per case). Close contacts had an average of 1.5 exposures (range: 1-14). A third of exposures (31.2%, n=518) occurred in social settings, 63.7% (n=1,058) were in a classroom, and 5.1% had both exposure types. Among all close contacts, 26.3% (n=63) tested positive. Close contacts were significantly more likely to test positive if they had a social exposure (61 of 602; 10.1%) compared to a classroom exposure (2 of 1058; 0.2%) (OR 59.5, CI 18.5 – 363.9, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Removing physical distancing in classrooms that had universal masking did not result in high rates of COVID-19 transmission.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the impact of eliminating physical distancing in a college classroom.
Describe the percentage of close contacts who tested positive after exposure to someone with COVID-19.
Differentiate between the impact of universal masking versus physical distancing as COVID-19 prevention strategies.