Guidance on Health and Safety

COVID-19 and Schools - Mitigation Strategies, Community Spread, and Decision-Making

Epidemiologists and technical experts from the CT Department of Public Health and Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health will discuss the importance and dynamics of the different mitigation strategies to be utilized in school settings this year, including face coverings, appropriate distancing, cohorting, and others. In addition, the presenters will discuss the latest science on COVID-19 spread; updates on the current disease trajectory in Connecticut; and different community-based COVID-19 metrics that school administrators, local officials, and local health departments can use to help inform their decision-making around whether and at what level in-person instruction should continue in their schools or whether instructional models should move toward a blended learning or fully virtual model.

Presenters: Lynn Sosa, MD, Deputy State Epidemiologist, TB/STD Control Programs Medical Director, Connecticut Department of Public Health; Richard Melchreit, MD, MPH, Connecticut Department of Public Health on assignment, Medical Reserve Corps; Thomas St. Louis, MSPH, Epidemiologist, Environmental and Occupational Health Assessment, Connecticut Department of Public Health; Albert Ko, MD, Department Chair and Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Department Chair, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale University

COVID19 and Schools: Mitigation Strategies, Community Spread, and Decision Making