Researchers more for school openings – science.ORF.at

“From a clinical point of view, most children / adolescents between the ages of one and 18 years have only mild or no Covid 19 disease and have the serious consequences of the infection much less often than adults. (…) Limited and increasing evidence indicates that the susceptibility to infection generally increases with age. With the same exposure to infected members of the household, children under ten years of age appear to be infected less frequently than adults and older adolescents. Studies in children aged nine years and under show that they are less susceptible than ten- to 14-year-olds, ”wrote Meira Levinson and co-authors from institutes at Harvard University in Boston in the „New England Journal of Medicine“.

SARS-CoV-2 can affect schools, but does not “arise” there. On Monday “Lancet Child & Adolescent Health” published two studies on Covid-19 and education. A scientific examination with the estimate of the start of the school year in the UK in September with calculations showed the following: “The results of the simulation indicate that a second wave (from Covid-19) in the UK can be prevented if the test rates are increased (59 to 87 Percent of all SARS-CoV-2-infected people would have to be tested). “75 percent of all people with symptomatic Covid-19 disease would have to be diagnosed and isolated in order to avoid additional problems due to the opening of schools.

Low risk of infection

The comes from Australia second study. The spread of Covid-19 in 25 schools and kindergartens in New South Wales was analyzed: Children and caregivers (teachers) showed a very low risk of infection if effective contact tracing and other measures were carried out.

For the time being only on a preprint server without peer review is one Review by E. Goldstein from the Epidemiology Department of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. There, reference is made to Chinese studies. For example, households in the Wuhan region would have had an infection rate of only four percent for under-18-year-olds, and a rate of 17 percent for adults, i.e. four times as much.

There were also indications that elementary schools are less at risk of spreading SARS-CoV-2 than schools for older people. “All of this indicates that the opening of elementary schools should be accompanied by other measures such as reducing crowds and reducing the risk of transmission as a whole.”

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