A first-of-its kind study examining the infection rates for staff and students in grades K-12 found that the incidence of COVID-19 was higher than expected. The first phase of the investigation found that infection rates for staff were two-and-a-half times higher, and nearly six times higher for students than reported by routine, self-initiated tests.

The study took place in Nebraska as a joint effort between OPS PROTECTS, an Omaha Public School district program, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, according to ABC News. Dr. Jana Broadhurst, one of the study authors and an assistant professor in the department of pathology and microbiology at UNMC, said that the results showed “as many as nine in 10 student COVID-19 cases and seven in 10 staff cases might be missed by conventional reporting.”

The researchers screened both asymptomatic students and staff weekly using a unique PCR saliva test developed at the medical center, and conducted air, surface, and wastewater testing in the schools. They found 46 cases of COVID-19 in asymptomatic individuals, equally divided between staff and students. The virus was detected in the air and surface samples only in the choir room, not in any of the classrooms, but it was found consistently in the schools’ wastewater, per ABC News.

“We do under-ascertain the number of cases that are present in our school setting when we don’t actively look for cases with asymptomatic screening ,” said Broadhurst, according to NET News, adding that it is important to be proactive in school testing rather than wait for symptoms to appear. 

The school district has been vigilant in employing mitigation risk measures such as using face coverings, physical distancing, hygiene measures and improvements in school infrastructures. The new evidence that frequent testing can help identify COVID-19 may be especially important now that more schools are considering reopening classrooms.

Medical experts say that the Centers for Disease Control should issue science-based guidance and allow U.S. Schools to open. The authorities, who include pediatricians, epidemiologists, and infectious disease experts, say the agency’s current school reopening guidance is based on fear, not fact.

Drs. Tara O. Henderson, Monica Gandhi, Tracy Beth Hoeg, and Daniel Johnson wrote an opinion piece in USA Today saying that keeping schools closed or even partially reopened is “unwarranted, harming children, and has become a human rights issue.”

According to USA Today, schools have not been sources of COVID-19 transmission. Dr. Hoeg conducted a study in a Wisconsin community that had a 41.6% COVID-19 test positivity rate. She found that only seven students in grades K-12 and no teachers contracted the virus. Similar findings were reported in schools in other states.

Dr. Hoeg’s study also found that six-foot distancing between children who wear masks was not science-based. In her research, more than 90% of the children were less than six feet apart during the school day. Last month, Massachusetts education officials ruled to phase out remote and hybrid learning in schools, reiterating that state guidance allows for only three feet of social distancing between students in classrooms.

The authors added that so far there has been no evidence of coronavirus variants spreading through in-person classrooms. “France, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium have demonstrated that K-12 schools can remain fully open safely even as the U.K. variant becomes dominant,” they wrote.

However, the Nebraska study now sheds light on how frequent testing can keep both students and staff even safer.

“We and Omaha Public Schools see testing as one more layer and a very comprehensive strategy to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission in schools,” said Broadhurst, according to ABC News.