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Few children have tested positive for covid-19. Of the total of 272,643 confirmed cases in Sweden, 2,670 correspond to children from 0 to 9 years old. It should be added that younger children are evaluated to a lesser extent.
It is also unusual for younger children to have severe symptoms of Covid-19.
Children are not a driving force in the spread of infections and infection among children is much more rare than among adults, according to the Swedish Public Health Agency. The WHO also notes that there are few reports of outbreaks involving children.
With, among other things, the Lower risk of infection as a basis, Sweden’s primary and preschool schools have been kept open during the pandemic. This spring, many other countries chose to switch to distance learning for younger children as well. However, this has changed in several countries that during the fall allowed schools to accept students despite increasing the spread of the infection.
But when it comes to meeting people in risk groups, the same guidelines apply to children as to the rest of the population. State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says that what has been weighed is both the size of the risk and the potential consequences.
– It’s a risk assessment and the greater the effects you take from being exposed to something risky, the more important it is to give up, even if the risk itself is small, he says.
On Thursday, the government announced that upper secondary schools are recommended to switch to distance learning for the remainder of the fall term. In recent months, there have been several outbreaks in secondary schools. In October, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased, mainly among older adolescents.
The so-called family isolation it was expanded on December 1 to also include children of preschool and primary age. Therefore, even the youngest children should stay home if someone in the home has tested positive for COVID-19, even if the child has no symptoms.
Infection among children increases with age: Adolescents transmit the infection more than younger children, but less than adults. The role of adolescents with more precision in spreading the infection should be further investigated, according to the Swedish Public Health Agency.
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