ECDC has published COVID-19 in children and the role of school settings in transmission – second update, which updates the current understanding of the role that children have in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of schools in the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/children-and-school-settings-covid-19-transmission.
Andrea Ammon, Director of ECDC:
“This report underlines the decision to close schools should be used as a last resort to control the spread of COVID-19. The benefits of keeping schools open would likely outweigh the benefits of closures, as interruptions would negatively impact children physically, mentally, and educationally. Nevertheless, it is essential that clear testing strategies are established and aimed at timely testing of symptomatic cases, to ensure detection and isolation of cases, and tracing and quarantine of their contacts. Additionally, non-pharmaceutical interventions in school settings will continue to be essential to prevent the spread of the virus in schools. Given the likely continued risk of transmission among unvaccinated children, it is imperative that there is a high level of preparedness throughout education systems for the coming school year.”
Children of all ages are susceptible to and can transmit COVID-19; however, cases of COVID-19 in younger children appear to lead to onward transmission less often than cases in older children and adults. Children aged between 1 and 18 years of age have much lower rates of hospitalisation, severe disease requiring intensive hospital care, and death than all other age groups.
While school closures could contribute to a reduction in COVID-19 transmission as a measure of last resort, closures by themselves are insufficient to prevent community transmission in the absence of other non-pharmaceutical interventions, and the expansion of vaccination coverage. Given the likely continued risk of transmission among unvaccinated children, it is imperative that there is a high level of preparedness in the educational system for the 2021/2022 school year.
By the time schools reopen for the upcoming school year, children and adolescents will have become the age groups with the lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the EU and EEA. Therefore, in the absence of a strict adherence to effective public health mitigation measures, concentrated circulation of COVID-19 is expected, including outbreaks in this age group.