SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission in educational settings: a prospective, cross-sectional analysis of infection clusters and outbreaks in England
Study notes re-opening of schools during summer half-termwas linked to very few cases/outbreaks in England, albeit with smaller classes in selected school years and proportionally greater attendance in early years settings & primary schools; outbreaks more likely to involve staff
Source:
The Lancet Infectious Diseases
SPS commentary:
A commentary discusses how to reconcile the growing evidence that children attending school seem to have an important role in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 with the evidence from this study. It suggests the answer is likely to lie in the low probability that children will experience disease that would have been picked up by the passive surveillance during the study period. This would imply that many outbreaks would have been missed and have been larger than identified. It adds that the partial reopening of schools in June and July with small bubbles and much fewer children attending, particularly in secondary education, might have led to considerably less within-school transmission than the reopening of schools to all children after the summer.