Significant Number Of Parents Not Sending Kids To School: Surveys

CONNECTICUT — Connecticut's coronavirus rate remains low, but Gov. Ned Lamont said he is becoming increasingly worried about more positive cases in people between the ages of 20 and 29.

Some southern states saw growth in that age bracket prior to their surge in coronavirus cases, he said.

The 20-29 age group in Connecticut had the most infections between July 5 and 11. That stands in stark contrast to the previous 90 days, when the group was the fourth-largest and those over 80 years old were the second-biggest group. Those over 80 are now one of the lowest age groups for new infections.

Lamont said that while he understands people between 20 and 29 are trying to make up for lost social time, it's imperative to keep risky behavior low.

“[They] are a little more casual when it comes to wearing the mask and close contact socializing,” Lamont said when asked why the group may be experiencing a growth in cases. “I think that is a worry.”

One out of five students may stay home in fall, parent surveys say

Some early surveys in school districts like Fairfield have found that 15 to 20 percent of parents don’t intend to send their children back to school in the fall and would rather have them do distance learning, Lamont said. That would open up more space for social distancing.

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that bringing students back to the classroom for even a short period would help with their education and overall well-being. Parents are in the best position to determine the risk level for their children, especially if they have conditions like asthma that could potentially put them at greater risk for coronavirus complications.

There is mixed evidence on how susceptible children are to the virus and how they transmit it, Gottlieb said. Regardless, the United States faces a different scenario than many other countries that managed to keep total infections low before sending children back to school.

“Less risk doesn’t mean no risk, and we deliberately have sheltered the children to date,” he said, adding that the overall infection rate among children may be very low to date.

Still, he was confident in Connecticut’s back-to-school plan.

“I have a lot of confidence in what we are doing, my kids are in public schools in the state ... and I feel very good about what my local officials and state officials have done to try and protect us all from this virus and address these risks,” he said.

School systems around the world have had different systems and levels of success to get children back to school, Gottlieb said. Chinese schools mandate mask use and control the traffic flow of people within schools. The Netherlands cut class sizes in half, but didn’t enforce distancing.

Denmark relied more on cohorting and controlling social interactions. Cohorting is the process of keeping the same group of children together for the entire school day so that infections could be limited if there were a positive case.

Israel had some issues with reopening schools due to crowded conditions and a lack of cohorting, Gottlieb said.

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