In-person schooling and COVID-19 transmission in Canada's three largest cities

Bignami, S.; Boujija, Y.; Fisman, D.; Sandberg, J.

In North America and Europe, the Fall 2020 school term has coincided with the beginning of the second wave of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, sparking a heated debate about the role of in-person schooling for community transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This issue has immediate policy relevance for deciding how to operate schools safely as the pandemic unfolds, new variants of SARS-CoV-2 are circulating, and immunization coverage remains low. We contribute to this debate by presenting data on trends in COVID-19 weekly incidence among school-aged children 0-19 years old vis-a-vis other age groups during Fall 2020 in Canada's three largest cities: Montreal, Toronto and Calgary. We interpret these trends in light of the different back-to-school policies and other public health measures implemented in the three cities over the observation period.