Flunking COVID out of Schools; a Systematic Review of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions to Minimize Novel Coronavirus-2 in Educational Settings

A systematic analysis of almost 500 studies uncovers the breadth of non-pharmaceutical (non-vaccine) interventions that have been previously implemented or tested in an educational setting to reduce virus transmissions. This systematic review takes a sociotechnical systems approach and categorizes the interventions into personal, environmental, organizational, and communication interventions. Thus, this analysis recognizes the interactions among various factors that make up an educational institution and emphasizes the significance to adopt multiple interventions. Complementing the various interventions, a list of best practices for each intervention has been developed in detail for COVID-19 crisis management in an educational setting with the current knowledge of the virus to date.