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From late spring to early summer, primary and secondary schools in England were open during an alarming wave of Delta infections.

And they handled the Delta increase in a way that might surprise American parents, educators, and legislators: Masking was a limited part of the strategy. In fact, mostly elementary school students and their teachers never wore them in class.

Instead, the British government focused on other security measures, widespread quarantine and rapid testing.

London’s St. George’s Hospital, pediatric infectious disease specialist and author of the book, Dr. “The UK has emphasized from the very beginning that they see no place for children to cover their faces if it can be avoided,” said Shamez Ladhani. Various government studies about the virus and schools.

The potential harms far exceed the potential benefits, because seeing faces is “important for people’s social development and interaction,” he said.

The British school system is different from the American school system. But as school systems across the United States debate whether masking is necessary, Britain’s experience during the Delta surge shows what’s going on in a country that relies on another safeguard for young children – quarantine – rather than covering their faces.

Unlike the United States, all public and private schools in the UK are expected to follow the national government’s virus guidelines and a single set of guides. (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for their own schools, but the rules have been similar.)

Delta variant tested guidelines. Starting in June, the number of cases increased rapidly and peaked in mid-July, roughly reflecting the last few months of the school calendar. Daily virus cases for 13 million people under the age of 20 in the UK rose from around 600 in mid-May to 12,000 in mid-July, according to government data. Scale positivity rates were highest among children and young adults – ages 5 to 24 – but also the least likely to be vaccinated.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how much sprawl there is on campuses. However, Dr. Ladhani said government surveys showed that infection rates in schools did not exceed the general population during the pandemic. He added that in schools that experience multiple cases of the virus, there is often “multiple promotions” – meaning that infections are most likely catching from outside the building.

There is debate over whether the end of the school year in mid-July contributed to the decline in virus cases in the country, but some researchers point out: the decline started before schools closed.

To counteract the Delta variant over the past academic year, the government has provided families with free rapid-fire tests and required them to test their children at home twice a week, although compliance has been spotty. Students were kept in groups inside the school building and sent home for 10-day quarantines if a case of the virus was confirmed inside the balloon. More than 90 percent of school staff had received at least one dose of the vaccine by the end of June, according to one study. government sample survey The number of English schools is similar to American teachers in the Northeast and West, but higher than in the South.

Under government guidelines, masks in classrooms were only required for certain periods of time in middle and high school equivalents, and were never required for elementary-aged children.

And there was less partisan division; Both Conservative and Labor Parties generally believe that covering their faces hinders young children’s ability to communicate, socialize and learn.

Schools in England followed government advice last academic year and aggressively quarantined students and staff who came into contact with the virus.

But the quarantines were devastating for students and parents, with more than 1 million children expelled from schools or in mid-July. 14 percent During the same period of the public school population, about 7 percent of teachers were sent home.

Rudo Manokore-Addy, the mother of a 7 and 3-year-old in London, has described herself as more cautious about the virus than the typical British parent. In the spring of 2020, she encouraged her daughters to wear cloth masks outside the house. At times last summer and last winter, he kept both girls home from school to observe the schools’ virus policies before sending them back.

Last spring, during the Delta wave, she and her husband happily kept their kids at school unmasked.

“I was pretty relieved,” he said. “In the end, we somehow decided to go with it. We were confident that the school’s practices were in place.”

In the United States, currently the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal masking inside school buildings and the CDC recommended it violations in the use of masks probably responsible for some spread Covid-19 in American schools.

The proposal proved divisive, as nine states sought to ban orders for school masks, according to the Center for the Rediscovery of Public Education, a think tank. But with low vaccination rates in many communities and limited access to regular virus testing across the country, masking may be one of the easiest security measures for American schools to implement. In addition, the CDC said students who have come into contact with the virus in schools do not need to be quarantined if both people wear appropriate masks.

Alasdair Munro, pediatric infectious disease researcher at Southampton University Hospital, said the American conversation about masks is “multipolar”. “Either it is seen as a fundamental, non-negotiable imperative, or it is seen as a very harmful infringement on individual freedom.”

Others in the UK would welcome masking. An epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, Dr. Deepti Gurdasani spoke widely for tighter security measures in schools. He called the British government’s opposition to masking among children “ideological” and said he was envious of the New York City school system’s policies on universal masking and the placement of masks. two air cleaners in each classroom.

However, it has also been quarantined in the United States, with some schools reopening for the new academic year temporarily closing classes over the past few weeks.

Research from the UK shows that rapid testing may be an alternative. Inside a study Conducted as a delta variant spread, secondary schools and colleges in England were randomly assigned to quarantine or testing.

A group of schools has quarantined students and staff who came into contact with positive Covid-19 cases. The other allowed those contacts to continue entering the building, but provided they had a rapid virus test every day for a week; Only those who tested positive would be sent home.

While the daily testing regimen was challenging for some schools, the results were reassuring: Less than 2 percent of contacts tested positive for Covid-19 in both the quarantine and test groups.

More reassuring evidence comes from testing school staff for antibodies; positivity rates were the same or lower than those of adults in the community, suggesting that schools were not ‘contagion centres’. According to Public Health England, a government agency.

Dr. Today, after prolonged closed classrooms, there is broad consensus in England that policies keeping children out of school are “extremely harmful in the long run”, Munro said.

The Ministry of National Education also announced last week In the upcoming school year, no one under the age of 18 will be quarantined after coming in contact with a positive case of the virus, regardless of vaccination status. (In the UK, vaccines are approved for people aged 16 and over.)

Masks will not be mandatory for any students or school staff, but they will be recommended “in closed and crowded areas where you can come into contact with people you don’t normally meet,” such as public transport to school.

Some critics believe the British government is too quick to relax security measures in schools.

Dr. Gurdasani said failure to take action this fall will increase the number of children infected and suffering. long-term effects of covid.

“I am not advocating the closure of schools,” he said. “But I don’t want a generation of children with disabilities in the years to come.”

Robin Bevan, head of the National Education Association and head of a secondary school in Southend, east London, said he finds it interesting that Britons regularly wear masks in supermarkets but not in schools.

All we have left is to open the windows and wash hands,” he said. “This is the government’s attitude.”

School leaders have the freedom to continue keeping children in defined bubbles or pods to reduce contamination – a practice Mr. Bevan says he wants to maintain.

Many parents say they are calm.

“There was such a political commitment to reopening in the UK,” said 40-year-old Bethan Roberts, who was confident in getting her three children back to face-to-face education last spring and keeping them there during the Delta surge.

“I didn’t feel too controversial here,” he added. “And there were a lot of exhausted parents who just said, ‘We can’t do this anymore.’

Alicia Parlapiano contributing reporting.