A recent study conducted in South Korea found that a higher prevalence of COVID-19 transmission came from older school-age children than those under the age of nine.
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Amid debate over plans to reopen the school, many have pointed to urgently needed data on the transmission of viruses from children to adults to guide decision-making.
The gaps in the data also remain in the understanding of how the reopening of schools could contribute to the spread of the community virus and airborne transmission, as well as the effectiveness of different mitigation strategies.
The study authors said the large-scale research is representative of the majority of COVID-19 patients at the start of the outbreak in South Korea.
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“We showed that home transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was high if the index patient (or the first documented case in a group) was between 10 and 19 years old,” they wrote.
The team monitored nearly 65,000 patients for about 10 days after a coronavirus infection was detected.
They found that a total of 11.8 percent of the domestic contacts of these “index patients” had COVID-19 infection. In households with patients ages 10-19, almost 19 percent of household contacts had an infection.
“Our large-scale research showed that the transmission pattern was similar to that of other respiratory viruses,” the authors wrote. “Although the detection rate of contacts for preschool-age children was lower, young children may show higher attack rates when school closes, which contributes to community transmission of COVID-19.”
The study comes after guidance from an influential national panel of experts who argued that schools should prioritize fall reopens for children in K-5 and those with disabilities. Officials from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine said this age group does not do as well as remote learning as older children, and warned of the long-term academic consequences if in-person learning remains closed. this autumn.
Also in recent news, an organization representing thousands of Florida pediatricians wrote a letter to Governor Ron DeSantis last week asking him to reconsider the reopening of schools in August amid a spate of new cases of coronavirus.
Dr. D. Paul Robinson, president of the Florida Chapter of the executive board of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said viral infection rates in Florida are “extremely high,” with a moving average of 14.2 percent in recent years. two weeks. He said that most health experts recommend keeping children out of school until rates drop between 3 and 5 percent for two weeks.
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He said that the FCAAP, which represents 2,600 pediatricians, believes that each school district must decide when and how to reopen for in-person learning. Some parents and teachers hope that the FCAAP council will reverse the decision to reopen schools.
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Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this story.
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