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From: TT
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Photo: Jonas Ekströmer / TT
The spread of the infection was largely unaffected when schools were opened after closures, according to several international studies. Stock Photography.
More and more international studies are pointing in the same direction: the new coronavirus seems to be having a hard time spreading in the school environment. But the researchers don’t understand why. These should be the ideal conditions for the spread of the infection.
Gathering groups of children indoors for much of the day should be the perfect way to spread Covid-19. Despite this, more and more large international studies show that school-age children are infected to a much lesser extent than adults, according to a review in the journal Nature.
“They seem to follow developments rather than drive infection,” Walter Haas, a researcher in infectious disease epidemiology at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, told Nature.
Limited scope
When schools and preschools were opened after closures in much of the world, many feared this would lead to new outbreaks. But when researchers have compiled the results so far, no such effect is seen. And where there have been cases of disease, it has been to a very limited extent.
A large Italian study has tracked the development in more than 65,000 schools that opened in September, despite signs of a further spread of the infection in society beginning to appear. After four weeks, not even two percent of the schools had reported any infection, and in 93 percent of the cases, it was just one case of illness per school. In a secondary school, a group of more than ten people was discovered infected.
Mainly among adults
However, the results of this Italian study are still preliminary, as they have only undergone an initial review to be presented in preprint. But they are in line with similar studies in, for example, the United States, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
A review by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, among others, shows that of the 30 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in British schools in June, it was mainly due to an infection that spread among adults from the personal. Only in two cases could it be confirmed that a student had infected another student. However, these results are also preliminary, but are consistent with observations from other countries.
Increases with age
The reason why children appear to become infected and then spread COVID-19 to a much lesser degree than adults remains a mystery to researchers. One possible explanation could be that they have smaller lungs and therefore less power to send infectious particles, argues infection epidemiologist Walter Haas. Another explanation could be that infected children rarely develop particularly severe symptoms.
The risk of children becoming infected and spreading the infection increases with age. An American study shows, for example, that the proportion of children with COVID-19 was twice as high among those aged 12 to 17 compared to those aged 5 to 11. Walter Haas and his colleagues recently published a study in Eurosurveillence, which offers a similar picture.
– It is adolescents and teachers who must be the focus of preventive measures when the spread of infection in society increases, such as wearing a mask or returning to distance education, says Walter Haas.
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