Measures implemented in the school setting to contain the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid scoping review

Background In response to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the impact of COVID-19, national and subnational governments implemented a variety of measures in order to control the spread of the virus and the associated disease. While these measures were imposed with the intention of controlling the pandemic,they were also associated with severe psychosocial, societal, and economic implications on a societal level.One setting a ected heavily by these measures is the school setting. By mid-April 2020, 192 countries had closed schools, a ecting more than 90% ofthe world’s student population. In consideration ofthe adverse consequences of school closures, many countries around the world reopened their schools in the months aIer the initial closures. To safely reopen schools and keep them open, governments implemented a broad range of measures. The evidence with regards to these measures, however, is heterogeneous, with a multitude of study designs, populations, settings, interventions and outcomes being assessed. To make sense of this heterogeneity, we conducted a rapid scoping review (8 October to 5 November 2020). This rapid scoping review is intended to serve as a precursor to a systematic review of e ectiveness, which will inform guidelines issued by the WorldHealthOrganization (WHO). This review is reported in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and was registered with the Open Science Framework. Objectives Toidentify andcomprehensivelymapthe evidence assessing the impactsofmeasures implementedinthe school setting toreopenschools, or keep schools open, or both, during the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic, with particular focus on the types of measures implemented in di erent school settings, the outcomes used to measure their impacts and the study types used to assess these. Search methods We searched the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register, MEDLINE, Embase, the CDC COVID-19 Research Articles Downloadable Database for preprints, and the WHO COVID-19 Global literature on coronavirus disease on 8 October 2020