A CDC study of COVID-19 spread in a Georgia school district shows how using masks and social distancing is essential to stop the coronavirus in classrooms, officials said.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky saying the agency looked at coronavirus spread in eight elementary schools in a single Georgia school district. She said researchers identified several clusters of COVID-19 cases involving 13 educators and 32 elementary students, with teachers being a main vector.

“Across the nine clusters, educators played an important role in the spread of COVID-19 in the schools,” Walensky said. “In two of these clusters, COVID-19 saw spread first from educator to educator and then from educator to student. These two clusters accounted for half of all the school associated cases.”

Walensky said those schools were not always following CDC guidelines, and that people not wearing masks and not social distancing were the biggest factors in the virus’ spread.

“COVID-19’s spread often occurred during in-person meetings or lunches and then subsequently spread in classrooms,” Walensky said. “Covid was also spread from student to educator and from student to student, but this occurred less frequently.”

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