A descriptive study of COVID-19 cases in primary and secondary schools in the Maltese islands: a nationwide experience

BACKGROUND: As part of the measures to contain the initial cases of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in 2020, all educational facilities were closed in March 2020 and remained so for the remainder of that scholastic year. When they reopened in October 2020, most educational facilities on the Maltese islands did so with various mitigation measures in place. METHODS: A Schools Contact Tracing Team (SCTT) dedicated to the management of COVID-19 cases within schools was set up and networks established between the Ministries responsible for Health and Education to facilitate timely communication and, consequently, effective contact tracing. All cases pertaining to educational facilities, be they students, teaching or non-teaching staff were assessed and managed by this Team. RESULTS: Between October 2020 and June 2021, the SCTT assessed 2603 COVID-19 cases within educational facilities in Malta. The highest rate of cases overall was observed in teaching staff (56.53/1000). In 72.45% of cases, no contacts were identified as high risk and thus nobody was placed in quarantine. In 3.07% of school cases >21 high-risk contacts were placed in mandatory quarantine together with their household members. Only 11% of the cases were epi-linked to another positive case within school. CONCLUSIONS: The strong collaboration between the health and education authorities combined with strict measures observed in schools ensured that schools remained open throughout most of this pandemic. This study describes the processes by which contact tracing for COVID-19 cases in Maltese schools was carried out and analyses the data collected throughout the scholastic year 2020–21.