A French study of COVID-19 has found that it is less likely for children to pass the virus on to other kids or adults in their lives.
The study, conducted at Institut Pasteur in Paris, included 1,340 people, 510 of them students in half a dozen primary schools. There were three probable cases that did not lead to infection of other students or their teachers, according to an article about the study in Bloomberg News.
What the study did show was that countries from Denmark to Switzerland were justified in opening schools, and that more than half of parents (61%) of children who contracted COVID-19 had the virus themselves, while just 7% of the parents of healthy students had the coronavirus. Children appear to have fewer obvious symptoms of COVID-19 and could be less contagious as well.
Institut Pasteur in Paris
| File photo
The French study is not the only one that finds a low transmission rate in schools. An Australian study by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) provided an overview of investigation into all schools and early childhood education and care (ECEC) services between April 10 and July 3. There were six cases, four students and two staff members in five schools and one ECEC service, that were noted as possible transmitters of COVID-19.
In the second term of the academic year, there were 521 people who were in close contact with the six individuals who were confirmed as COVID-19 patients. There were no secondary infections by the primary patients, according to the study.
Research on children and COVID-19 has been contradictory, but epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet and his colleagues in France advocate for more studies on schools. There have been reports that support the findings of the Institut Pasteur study – like the study in Australia – that could support reopening schools for in-class instruction in other parts of the world.
The Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Education recognize the importance of in-person learning for students in the United States and have proposed a variety of safeguards. But there are some places where the results of these studies may not hold up.
Colleges and high schools across the country are reporting new infections. The Detroit Free Press reported that Isabella County, Michigan, has declared a state of emergency after large parties by students coincided with increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases.
“We have seen a large increase in cases since students returned to the Mount Pleasant area,” Central Michigan District Health Department health officer Steve Hall told the paper. “Our investigations have shown that the majority of these cases had attended large social gatherings.”
A Georgia school district saw 1,200 students quarantined between Aug. 4-7, the New York Times reported. The principal of Sixes Elementary School in Canton’s Cherokee County School District reported a 2nd-grade student had tested positive for COVID-19, and by the end of the week letters had gone out from 10 schools in the district.
