School closures help reduce the spread of COVID-19: A pre- and post-intervention analysis in Pakistan.

ABSTRACT: Closing schools to control COVID-19 transmission has been globally debated, with concerns about children's education and well-being, and also because of the varied effectiveness of the intervention in studies across the world. This paper aims to determine the effect of school closure policy on the incidence of COVID-19 in Pakistan. A Difference-in-Differences (DiD) analysis compared changes in COVID-19 incidence across cities that completely (Islamabad) and partially (Peshawar) closed schools during the second wave of COVID-19 in Pakistan. Effects of closing (November 2020) and reopening schools (February 2021) were assessed in Islamabad and Peshawar 10 and 20 days after policy implementation. In Islamabad, there was a greater decline in cases than in Peshawar when schools closed. After 10

SUBMITTER: Mueed A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10021268 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature