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Schoolchildren contract Covid-19 just as often as adults, only mostly without fever or cough, as one study shows.
2,500 schoolchildren in the canton of Zurich were screened for antibodies to the coronavirus. Children in grades one through eight were found to have been in contact with the virus as often as adults. Only the virus had a much smaller impact on them.
Only very nonspecific symptoms
The children had a slight fever or cough, a little stomachache, or were unwell. These symptoms are so nonspecific that they do not help at all to find sick children, says Professor Susi Kriemler from the Zurich Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention. Children who tested negative reported similar symptoms.
Overall, three-quarters of all children had such symptoms at the time of the investigation. With so many children, you don’t know they were sick with Covid-19. The number of unreported cases is 90 percent. There is at least one case in every third school year and 2.8% of all children in the canton of Zurich have come into contact with the coronavirus.
Parents infected their children
Students in grades one through two carried the virus more often than those in grades seven through eight, Kriemler says. “Younger children tend to be affected more often.” In the home environment, they would have closer contact with their parents, that is, they were infected by the parents.
In contrast, how often children also infect their parents, or their teachers and classmates, cannot be read in this study, Kriemler says. This is because the data was collected in June and July, that is, immediately after the crash.
A second study is needed in the fall
Exactly what will happen to the reopened schools cannot currently be estimated, he says. “That is why it is extremely important that we do a second examination with the same children in the fall,” said the epidemiologist.
Because only when the virus has had time to circulate among children will it be possible to find reliable answers to these questions.
