State medical director discourages shuffling students around to avoid Covid

DES MOINES — State medical director Dr. Caitlin Pedati says having students move around a classroom or school building every few minutes creates more opportunities for the coronavirus to spread.

“The advice that we’ve provided is that rather have people interaction more and create more person to person interactions, really you want to have fewer person to person interactions,” she says.

Iowa Starting Line has reported a few Iowa school districts are having students get up and move around every 12 to 14 minutes, moves that could avoid quarantining students who were — for at least 15 minutes — within six feet of someone who tests positive for Covid.

“I wouldn’t suggest that as an approach,” Pedati says.

Some schools are doing the exact opposite of encouraging periodic movement and, instead, are keeping students and teachers together in pods throughout the day to prevent the potential spread of the virus through a school building.

“We’ve got a virus that moves from person to person and so minimizing person to person interactions is how you can minimize the transfer of this virus,” Pedati says.

Waukee administrators say they’re recommending students stand up and move up to six times an hour to promote healthy habits and all students in a classroom will still be asked to quarantine if one tests positive for the virus.

The Des Moines Register reports Woodbury-Central School District officials are evaluating whether shuffling students around every 12 to 14 minutes would prevent the spread of the coronavirus.