Coronavirus: Kids at school ‘at risk of infection’

There is ‘clear evidence’ children and schools are at risk from coronavirus, despite assurances from politicians and health officials.

There is “clear evidence” children and schools are at risk from coronavirus, despite assurances from politicians and health officials that children do not play a significant role in spreading the virus.

That’s the conclusion of an article in the Medical Journal of Australia that collates evidence from around the world suggesting children contract COVID-19 at almost the same rate as adults.

It’s well established that children generally experience only mild symptoms when they are infected with COVID-19. Severe symptoms are uncommon in children, although a rare post-viral inflammatory syndrome has been documented in a small number of paediatric COVID-19 patients around the world.

That severe symptoms are rare does not mean children are not contracting COVID-19, says the article’s author, Zoe Hyde, a research fellow at the WA Centre for Health and Ageing at the University of Western Australia.

International studies have indicated children are infected with COVID-19 in lower numbers than adults but Dr Hyde said that may reflect the fact schools were closed in many countries.

In Sweden, where schools stayed open, there was “no significant difference in seroprevalence” of COVID-19 between children and adults. “The role children play in transmission is less certain, but (they) do not appear to be less infectious than adults,” she said.

In Victoria’s second wave, outbreaks were tied to schools, most notably Al-Taqwa College, which had 100-plus infections.