A study by Professor Kentaro Fukumoto of the Faculty of Law, Gakushuin University revealed that the temporary closure of elementary and junior high schools in the spring of 2020 could not confirm evidence that the spread of the new coronavirus infection was suppressed.
According to Gakuin University, Professor Fukumoto and his colleagues assigned the municipalities that have been temporarily closed due to similar numbers of new corona patients, children, and hospitals in the past. If it was done by the municipalities that did not carry out the temporary closure, it was estimated how much the number of patients would have decreased.
As a result, we could hardly confirm the evidence that the number of newly infected people was smaller in the municipalities that had temporarily closed school than in the municipalities that did not.Since the temporary closure brings various side effects to society such as delays in learning for children, Professor Fukumoto and his colleagues think that even if the infection spreads in the future, it should be carefully reconsidered.
In February 2020, the then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a policy to request local governments to curb the spread of infection at the new coronavirus infectious disease control headquarters.In response to this, many municipalities have intermittently closed schools.
However, not only the delay in learning of children and students, but also various side effects such as an increase in the burden on parents and a shortage of nurses in hospitals have appeared in society.
Paper information:[Nature Medicine] No causal effect of school closures in Japan on the spread of COVID-19 in spring 2020
