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Data collected around the world increasingly suggests that schools are not hot spots for coronavirus infections, according to an article in leading scientific journal Nature.
In conclusions consistent with evidence presented by the Health Service Executive regarding schools in Ireland, the Nature article finds that, despite fears, Covid-19 infections have not increased as a result of the reopening. of schools and nurseries.
He says international evidence also shows that when outbreaks do occur, they mostly result in only a small number of people getting sick.
This again corresponds with the HSE findings that in the relatively rare cases where transmission is believed to have occurred in a school setting, the average number of people infected is just three.
The Nature article was published yesterday.
However, he says research shows that children can contract the virus and shed viral particles, and that older children are more likely than very young children to pass it on to others.
Scientists say the reasons for these trends are unclear, but they have political implications for older children and teachers.
Nature quotes the infectious disease epidemiologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Professor Walter Haas, who says that while schools and childcare centers seem to provide an ideal environment for the transmission of coronavirus because large groups meet in the indoors for extended periods of time, Covid-19 infections still persist worldwide. much lower among children than among adults.
Nature says the evidence shows that even in places where community infections were on the rise, “outbreaks in schools were rare, particularly when precautions were taken to reduce transmission.”
He points to Italy where, despite numbers increasing in the community, in 93% of school cases only one infection was reported, and only one high school had a group of more than ten infected people.
Again, this reflects the landscape in schools here where, based on HSE data, it is estimated that transmission of the virus within schools has occurred in just 1.5% of all schools, with an average of just three infected students or staff in these cases.
The HSE has found that in a vast majority of cases diagnosed in schools, family members also have symptoms. This indicates that the student or staff member has contracted the virus outside of the school setting.
The Nature article also cites data from school outbreaks in England, showing that of 30 school outbreaks confirmed in June, the majority involved transmission between staff and not students.
He cites a meta-analysis of prevalence studies in which researchers suspect that children, especially those under the age of 12-14, are less susceptible to infection than adults.
Professor Haas says that “the potential for transmission increases” with age, and that adolescents are as likely to transmit the virus as adults. He cautions that when community transmission is high, teens and teachers should take additional protective measures, such as wearing masks.
This is a measure that is already in place in Irish schools.
The data show that the older the child, the greater the likelihood of infection.
Professor Haas told Nature that it is still puzzling why young children seem less likely to transmit the coronavirus to others.
It could be because they are asymptomatic more often, or it could be because they have smaller lungs.
While scientists say there is no such thing as zero transmission or zero risk, according to Nature, international evidence continues to point to a low risk of infection in schools, especially when community transmission is low.
Evidence gathered by the HSE throughout this month and in the past, and presented at a briefing yesterday, supports this conclusion.
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