3 feet just as safe as 6 for physical distancing: Study

In a study published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases last week, researchers from Boston-based medical research institutes compared infection trends in 251 school districts in Massachusetts.

Maintaining six feet of social distancing is unlikely to be more or less safe than keeping a distance of 3 feet, especially in schools, according to a study covering over 500,000 students and close to 100,000 staff in the United States, which recommends that the lower requirement could help bring more children back to school.

A student wearing a face mask going school after government and private schools in Delhi welcomed senior students back amid safety protocols in this file picture from February 2021. (Raj K Raj/ Hindustan Times)

In a study published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases last week, researchers from Boston-based medical research institutes compared infection trends in 251 school districts in Massachusetts. They found that the risk of being infected with Covid-19 did not show any statistical difference when rules mandated three-feet social distancing or six-feet social distancing.

“Increasing physical distancing requirements from 3 to 6 feet in school settings is not associated with a reduction in SARS-CoV-2 cases among students or staff, provided other mitigation measures, such as universal masking, are implemented,” said the study, published on March 10. The findings are significant in a country like India where authorities are slowly opening up schools. Schools in India were shut for one of the longest stretches of time compared to anywhere in the world, with learning moving online for those who had the means and access.

“Our study adds to the literature as we were able to directly compare the impact of different physical distancing policies while controlling for other important mitigation measures, notably universal masking among staff and near universal masking among students, including close in younger grades,” said the study, while adding that “lower physical distancing recommendation can be adopted in school settings without negatively impacting safety”.

The authors also noted that this could help where school infrastructure is not adequate to ensure 6 feet distancing. “The practical implication of a 6 feet of distancing recommendation is that many schools are unable to open for full-in person learning, or at all, due to physical limitations of school infrastructure. This is particularly true in public school districts, which are unable to limit the number of students enrolled, compared to private schools, which have been able to more successfully open with 6 feet of distance between individuals,” they said.

While there were large differences in the absolute numbers of infections seen in the two different types of social distancing settings, they were not statistically significant when the researchers adjusted for community transmission levels.