US health officials are supporting a “test-to-stay” policy that allows close contacts of students infected with the coronavirus to stay in the classroom when the test results are negative.

After studying such policies in Chicago and Los Angeles, it was found that when using this method, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to adopt this method more firmly, and this method has been used by many school districts.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Friday: “The school stay exam is an encouraging public health practice that helps keep our children in school.”

The CDC’s official guidance to schools is that when someone in the school tests positive for COVID-19 infection, those who are considered to have close contact should leave the school and be isolated at home for 10 days.

After the CDC announced the news on Friday, it said that both the retention test plan and the isolation method are equally good choices for the school.

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Hundreds of schools have adopted a test retention policy, and several states have funded a statewide test retention policy to prevent students from leaving school for long periods of time.

Previously, the CDC stated that as long as other measures are followed, such as wearing masks for teachers and students, this approach is hopeful.

CDC has been working with some school districts to evaluate these programs, and two studies released by the agency show that they are working well.

One is in the suburbs of Lake County, Illinois, just north of Chicago, and it passed a plan in August. Close contacts are allowed to stay in school, provided that the infected and close contacts wear masks when possible contact, close contacts have no symptoms, and close contacts are tested 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after exposure to the virus. .

Of the more than 1,000 close contacts tracked, only 16 developed infections, with a transmission rate of approximately 1.5%. Health officials believe this is a successful method that allows many students to stay in school.

A similar study reported similar results, which looked at what happened in schools in Los Angeles County, California this fall. The researchers counted 7,511 close contacts of students in schools that tried this strategy, and the secondary infection rate was 0.7%.