The most important unanswered questions about COVID-19 is: What is the role of children in this pandemic?

The answer is in deciding whether and when to reopen schools, a necessary step that President Donald Trump has urged states to consider before the summer.

Two new studies have suggested with convincing evidence that children can transmit the virus. Neither both of studies proved it, but the evidence was strong enough to advise that schools should be kept closed at present. Many epidemiologists who were not involved in the research also said the same.

A team analyzed data from two cities in China — Wuhan, from where the virus first emerged, and Shanghai. This analyzed study was published last week in the journal Science. It was found that children were about a third as vulnerable to coronavirus infection as adults were. However, as the schools were opened, it was found that children had about 3 times as many contacts as adults and 3 times as many chances to become infected.

According to their data, the researchers projected that closure of schools is not only necessary to stop an outbreak, but it can also reduce the surge by approximately 40% to 60% and help in slowing the epidemic’s progression.

Marco Ajelli, a mathematical epidemiologist who worked at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Italy, said that his simulation has shown that if you reopen the schools, a big increase in the reproduction number can be seen.

Another study, by a group of German researchers tested children and adults and found that children who test positive possess as much virus as adults do, maybe at times more and hence, apparently, are as infectious.

An epidemiologist, Jennifer Nuzzo, at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that the decision to open schools again can’t be taken based on trying to prevent transmission.

Source: ET Healthworld