Primary schools can significantly contribute to COVID-19 spread

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Photo by Taylor Wilcox on Unsplash
Photo by Taylor Wilcox on Unsplash

A study monitoring the incidence of COVID-19 within a primary school community has found most infections linked back to the school, suggesting primary schools can contribute significantly to the spread of the virus. Researchers regularly tested staff, parents and children at a Belgian primary school for three months at the end of 2020, before vaccines were widely available and before the global spread of the Delta variant. 13 of 63 children tested positive during the study, and 32 of 118 adults tested positive. While the infection rates were similar, children were more likely to be asymptomatic or be sick for a shorter period. The researchers say the majority of COVID-19 cases were a result of transmissions at the school, and most household transmissions began with a member of the household catching COVID-19 at the school.

Media release

From: JAMA

What The Study Did: Researchers used data from a primary school in Belgium to examine the possible role of children in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

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Research JAMA, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends
Journal/
conference:
JAMA Network Open
Research:Paper
Organisation/s: Liège University Hospital, Belgium
Funder: The study was funded by Fondation Léon Fredericq and by the Liège University Hospital Research funds. Drs Faes and Hens acknowledge support from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant 682540 from the TransMID project and grant 101003688 from the EpiPose project).
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