What Is the Evidence for Transmission of COVID-19 by Children in Schools? A Living Systematic Review

Abstract

Summary: It is of paramount importance to understand the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools, which could support the decision-making about educational facilities closure or re-opening with effective prevention and control measures in place. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the extent of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools. We performed risk of bias evaluation of all included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). 2,178 articles were retrieved and 11 studies were included. Five cohort studies reported a combined 22 student and 21 staff index cases that exposed 3,345 contacts with 18 transmissions [overall infection attack rate (IAR): 0·08% (95% CI: 0·00%-0·86%)]. IARs for students and school staff were 0·15% (95% CI: 0·00%-0·93%) and 0·70% (95% CI: 0·00%-3·56%) respectively. Six cross-sectional studies reported 639 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases in 6,682 study participants tested [overall SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate: 8·00% (95% CI: 2·17%-16·95%)]. SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate was estimated to be 8·74% (95% CI: 2·34%-18·53%) among students, compared to 13·68% (95% CI: 1·68%-33·89%) among school staff. Gender differences were not found for secondary infection (OR: 1·44, 95% CI: 0·50-4·14, P= 0·49) and SARS-CoV-2 positivity (OR: 0·90, 95% CI: 0·72-1·13, P= 0·36) in schools. Fever, cough, dyspnea, ageusia, anosmia, rhinitis, sore throat, headache, myalgia, asthenia, and diarrhoea were all associated with the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (based on two studies). Overall, study quality was judged to be poor with risk of performance and attrition bias, limiting the confidence in the results. In conclusion, there is limited high-quality evidence available to quantify the extent of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools or to compare it to community transmission. Emerging evidence suggests lower IAR and SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate in students compared to school staff. Future prospective and adequately controlled cohort studies are necessary to confirm this finding.Registration: PROSPERO (register number: CRD42020192839)Funding Statement: ET is supported by a Cancer Research UK Career Development Fellowship (C31250/A22804). AK is supported by a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD Programme Fellowship with grant reference: 203919/Z/16/Z. UNCOVER group is supported by Wellcome Trust's Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF3) and by DDI.Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.