Covid: study clears schools, rare infections and student-teacher transmission

Rome 26 mar. (beraking latest news Salute) – Schools are not ‘amplifiers’ of the Covid-19 pandemic. To clear them is a study coordinated by Luca Scorrano of the Department of Biology of the University of Padua and by Sara Gandini, epidemiologist at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, published in ‘The Lancet Regional Health – Europe’. The research indicates how the surge in the epidemic observed between October and November 2020 cannot be attributed to the opening of schools and how their total or partial closure in two Italian regions did not affect the decrease in the Rt index.

“Our study shows how the incidence of Covid-19 among students was lower than in the general population – explains Gandini – Secondary infections at school were less than 1% and outbreaks occurred in 5-7% of schools. The incidence among teachers was comparable to that recorded in the population of comparable age to that of teachers. Secondary infections among teachers were rare and occurred more frequently when the index case was a teacher than a student. ”

And again: “In the period that just preceded the opening of schools in Veneto and in concomitance with the opening itself – highlights Gandini – the incidence of Covid-19 has grown most not among students, but in 20 individuals -29 and 45-49 years. The mismatch between the different opening dates of schools in the Italian regions and the increase in the regional Rt index was not uniform. Finally, the closures of schools in two regions where they were implemented before other measures did not influence the decrease in Rt which was already underway “.

Therefore, “as a whole, these evidences – Scorrano points out – do not support a role of individuals of school age and school openings as the ‘engine’ of the second wave of Covid-19”.

“Our work – adds Gandini – adds to the many evidences accumulated over the last year, which as a whole have ‘cleared’ the school in the presence. In public health we must always balance risks and benefits. In light of the lack of solid evidence that schooling contributes significantly to the spread of the pandemic, it seems to us – concludes the epidemiologist – that the benefit is not clear and that the risk here is above all that of the serious repercussions caused by the closure of schools on the health of children and adolescents “.