Teachers may be more likely to spread COVID-19 than students, a new CDC study suggests.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined nine outbreaks in eight elementary schools in Marietta, Ga., outside of Atlanta in December through last month, the agency said Monday.
A teacher was proven to be Ground Zero for four of the outbreaks, while a student was definitively identified as the starting point in another, researchers said.
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In the other four outbreaks, while the line of transmission was not as clear, a teacher was suspected as being the kick-off, the study said.
“Educators were central to in-school transmission networks,” the scientists said in their report.
“The finding that educators play an important role in in-school transmission is consistent with findings from other investigations,” the study added, referring to previous British and German research.
Still, the CDC report noted that the Georgia schools involved in the study had “less than ideal physical distancing,” with students
