Abstract
An intense debate on school closures to control the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing in Europe. We prospectively examined transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from confirmed paediatric cases in Norwegian primary schools between August and November 2020. All in-school contacts were systematically tested twice during their quarantine period. With preventive measures implemented in schools, we found minimal child-to-child (0.9%, 2/234) and child-to-adult (1.7%, 1/58) transmission, supporting that under 14 year olds are not the drivers of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
Highlights
An intense debate on school closures to control the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing in Europe
We aimed to examine transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from confirmed paediatric COVID-19 cases in primary schools in Norway by systematically testing all contacts within the school twice during their quarantine period
A primary case was defined as a school contact who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the first saliva sample
Summary
An intense debate on school closures to control the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing in Europe. We prospectively examined transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from confirmed paediatric cases in Norwegian primary schools between August and November 2020. We aimed to examine transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from confirmed paediatric COVID-19 cases in primary schools in Norway by systematically testing all contacts within the school twice during their quarantine period. From 28 August 2020 to 11 November 2020, the number of confirmed cases increased in these counties, including among children 5–13 years old (Figure 1). An index case was defined as a case aged 5–13 years in Oslo or Viken county with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, who had attended school within 48 hours before symptom onset or date of sampling. A primary case was defined as a school contact who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the first saliva sample. A secondary case was defined as a school contact who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the second saliva sample, following a first negative test
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