Tosi, D.; Siro Campi, A. How Schools Affected the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Data Analysis for Lombardy Region, Campania Region and Emilia Region. Future Internet2021, 13, 109.
Tosi, D.; Siro Campi, A. How Schools Affected the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Data Analysis for Lombardy Region, Campania Region and Emilia Region. Future Internet 2021, 13, 109.
Tosi, D.; Siro Campi, A. How Schools Affected the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Data Analysis for Lombardy Region, Campania Region and Emilia Region. Future Internet2021, 13, 109.
Tosi, D.; Siro Campi, A. How Schools Affected the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Data Analysis for Lombardy Region, Campania Region and Emilia Region. Future Internet 2021, 13, 109.
Abstract
Background: CoronaVirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the main discussed topic world-wide in 2020 and at the beginning of the Italian epidemic, scientists tried to understand the virus diffusion and the epidemic curve of positive cases with controversial findings and numbers.
Objectives: In this paper, a data analytics study on the diffusion of COVID-19 in Lombardy Region and Campania Region is developed in order to identify the driver that sparked the second wave in Italy
Methods: Starting from all the available official data collected about the diffusion of COVID-19, we analyzed google mobility data, school data and infection data for two big regions in Italy: Lombardy Region and Campania Region, which adopted two different approaches in opening and closing schools. To reinforce our findings, we also extended the analysis to the Emilia Romagna Region.
Results: The paper aims at showing how different policies adopted in school opening / closing may have on the impact on the COVID-19 spread.
Conclusions: The paper shows that a clear correlation exists between the school contagion and the subsequent temporal overall contagion in a geographical area.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2; Big Data; Data Analytics; Predictive Models; Schools
Subject
Computer Science and Mathematics, Information Systems
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
26 March 2021
Commenter:
Serena Da Rold
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment:
It would be interesting to see the analysis of the impact of school policies adjusted for the number of swabs in the school population. In Lombardy, the number of swabs increased significantly in October, as a number of school started experimentation on rapid antigenic tests and the a new swab procedure was implemented to fast-track cases that were reported by schools (based on symptoms or close relationship with confirmed cases).
The increase in the number of students and teachers that were tested as a consequence of these may well have helped to identify more asymptomatic cases among children, which would not have surfaced if the schools had been closed.
Have you thought of widening the analysis to the number of tests, positives to swabs ratios, and other factors and different policies that could have influenced the different evolution of the curve in different regions?
Kind regards,
Serena
Commenter: Serena Da Rold
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
The increase in the number of students and teachers that were tested as a consequence of these may well have helped to identify more asymptomatic cases among children, which would not have surfaced if the schools had been closed.
Have you thought of widening the analysis to the number of tests, positives to swabs ratios, and other factors and different policies that could have influenced the different evolution of the curve in different regions?
Kind regards,
Serena