Some countries have reopened schools. What have they learned about children and Covid?

Other countries, such as Israel, opened schools and lifted restrictions on surrounding communities in May, An outbreak of Covid-19 infected 1,335 Israeli students and 691 staff as of July 15. In Israel, schools reopened without masking or social distance rules Wall Street JournalUnlike the Scandinavian countries, which have a limited number of classes, we allowed up to 40 students per class. Since May, Israel has closed 125 schools and 258 kindergartens due to outbreaks.

Despite the number in Israel, there are other epidemiologic case studies showing that the spread of coronaviruses may be restricted in schools. In Saxony, Germany, doctors from the University of Dresden checked blood samples from 1500 students and 500 teachers after the school reopened in May. Only 12 tested positive for antibodies to coronavirus, indicating low levels of community infection. their Preliminary researchAlthough posted on a preprint server and not peer-reviewed by scientific journals, the infection was found throughout the school and neighboring communities despite coronavirus cases being detected in three of the 13 schools surveyed. It has not spread to.

Of the 24 households in which at least one family had previously tested positive for Covid-19, the virus was only transmitted to another family once. The authors of the study say that even though they lived with an infected family, the school children did not get infected and the other school children did not get the virus. “Our research has shown that it is less important for students to play an important role in viral transmission than originally thought,” the author of the study and a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University Children’s Hospital in Dresden. One Jacob Arman wrote in an email.

“Even the school that had identified the incident before the March blockade could not identify the hidden cluster,” continued Arman. “While maintaining certain measures (eg wearing universal masks in public transport, stores, sporting events) so that the general population can be kept low and the students kept at school at the same time. There is a safe way to get back into school.”

The German study may be considered a bit of good news for parents who want to bring their children back into a face-to-face class, but it has a big caveat. Unlike the US, which suffers from federal anarchy and various measures taken by individual governors, German health authorities swiftly dealt with the March outbreak of the coronavirus in accordance with public health guidelines. Germany was widespread from early on Testing and treatment Set up protocols, and many intensive care beds. Germans also relied on governmental directives and widely observed social distance guidelines for taking precautions.

Since then, Germany has been Sports league Without losing control of the virus. According to Germany, there were 206,667 cases and 9,124 deaths as of July 26. Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource CenterIt compares to more than 4.2 million confirmed cases and 146,831 deaths in the United States, more than any other country.

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The German study, with 2,000 participants, was relatively small. In epidemiology, larger sample sizes can provide a type of statistical power that enhances the conclusions about diseases that spread to the population. Therefore, it is worth looking at nearly 5,700 studies. Korean coronavirus patient It was released on a pre-print server this month by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Korea. Through extensive contract tracing, the authors were able to trace the spread of the virus to the additional 59,000 infected, from the so-called “index patient”, the first confirmed case in a community cluster of infectious diseases. .. They found that children under 10 years of age who were positive for Covid-19 had the lowest infection rates in any age group, while children between the ages of 10 and 19 showed similar infection rates to adults. ..