Yes, we’ve seen schools close. But the evidence still shows kids are unlikely to catch or spread coronavirus

<h3><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;7news&period;com&period;au&sol;lifestyle&sol;health-wellbeing&sol;brunswick-east-primary-school-forced-to-close-after-pupils-coronavirus-infection-c-1117944">Brunswick East Primary School<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;abc&period;net&period;au&sol;news&sol;2020-06-23&sol;coronavirus-cases-victoria-rise-as-schools-close-in-hotspots&sol;12383106">Keilor Views Primary School<&sol;a> in Melbourne have temporarily shut down after children from both schools tested positive to COVID-19&comma; while a confirmed case in a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;smh&period;com&period;au&sol;national&sol;nsw&sol;sydney-school-to-close-after-confirmed-covid-19-case-20200624-p555we&period;html">year 2 student<&sol;a> led to the closure of Sydney’s Lane Cove West Public School&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>A <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;9news&period;com&period;au&sol;national&sol;coronavirus-victoria-elderly-man-twentieth-person-to-die-of-covid19-australia&sol;da1eb885-9841-4e90-891f-8100ea77f43d">childcare<&sol;a> centre in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon has also closed for cleaning after a child tested positive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These cases&comma; and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;7news&period;com&period;au&sol;lifestyle&sol;health-wellbeing&sol;coronavirus-cases-in-victorian-classrooms-jumps-as-four-more-schools-close-c-1114206">others<&sol;a> in young children&comma; follow a handful of positive cases in teenage students in Sydney and Melbourne and may be prompting some to wonder whether it’s time to rethink reopening schools after lockdown&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The short answer is&colon; no&period; The research still suggests that while children can be infected with COVID-19&comma; it is uncommon&period; They also don’t seem to pass the disease on as efficiently as adults do&comma; and cases of child-to-child infection are uncommon&period; And when children do get infected&comma; they don’t seem to get very sick&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The temporary closure of schools &lpar;and at least one childcare centre&rpar; is evidence the system is working as it should — cases are being identified&comma; contact tracing and deep cleans are underway and every effort is made to limit the spread&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What we know about children and coronavirus<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>We still don’t know exactly why COVID-19 is much more common in adults than children&period; The COVID-19 virus &lpar;SARS-CoV-2&rpar; infects people by attaching itself to a receptor called the ACE2 enzyme&comma; and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;jamanetwork&period;com&sol;journals&sol;jama&sol;fullarticle&sol;2766522">differences<&sol;a> in this receptor in children may be one reason why children are less susceptible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A lot of the thinking around schools and COVID-19 in Australia is based on <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;ncirs&period;org&period;au&sol;sites&sol;default&sol;files&sol;2020-04&sol;NCIRS&percnt;20NSW&percnt;20Schools&percnt;20COVID&lowbar;Summary&lowbar;FINAL&percnt;20public&lowbar;26&percnt;20April&percnt;202020&period;pdf">follow up<&sol;a> of school cases by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance &lpar;NCIRS&rpar;&period; It was released in April but still reflects what is currently known about the virus and how it interacts with children and school settings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report found&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>In NSW&comma; from March to mid-April 2020&comma; 18 individuals &lpar;9 students and 9 staff&rpar; from 15 schools were confirmed as COVID-19 cases&semi; all of these individuals had an opportunity to transmit the COVID-19 virus &lpar;SARS-CoV-2&rpar; to others in their schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>735 students and 128 staff were close contacts of these initial 18 cases<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>no teacher or staff member contracted COVID-19 from any of the initial school cases<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>one child from a primary school and one child from a high school may have contracted COVID-19 from the initial cases at their schools&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Data from the Netherlands also <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;rivm&period;nl&sol;en&sol;novel-coronavirus-covid-19&sol;children-and-covid-19">found<&sol;a> &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;children play a minor role in the spread of the novel coronavirus”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In younger children&comma; a rare but severe complication called <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;paeds&period;org&period;au&sol;covid-19-kawasaki-disease-kd-and-pims-ts-children">PIMS-TS<&sol;a> has been described&period; However&comma; these cases have occurred in areas where there is extremely high transmission of COVID-19 in the community&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A bigger concern around schools is how adults congregate&period; Schools now have some version of physical distancing in the staff room and on school grounds to limit the risk of transmission between adults&period; Parents are asked not to enter school grounds or congregate in close quarters at the school gate&comma; although the fact that this is outdoors and not a long period of contact also helps reduce the risk&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What about COVID-19 and high school students&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>There have been several reports of cases in high schools both in Australia and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;npr&period;org&sol;sections&sol;coronavirus-live-updates&sol;2020&sol;06&sol;03&sol;868507524&sol;israel-orders-schools-to-close-when-covid-19-cases-are-discovered">abroad<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Older children in high school start to have similar risk to adults&comma; although the risk of complications is still substantially lower than in the elderly&period; Importantly&comma; kids in this age group are more able to physically distance and adhere to personal hygiene measures than primary school-aged kids&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At least one instance of a high school outbreak in <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;stuff&period;co&period;nz&sol;national&sol;health&sol;coronavirus&sol;120895239&sol;coronavirus-everything-we-know-about-new-zealands-marist-college-covid19-cluster">Auckland<&sol;a> was related to an event outside the classroom at which many adults were present&period; So it was less about transmission in the classroom and more related to a particular event&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The system is working<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>It’s important that schools remain open&period; But precautions are still required&colon; teaching children to maintain personal hygiene&comma; enhanced cleaning&comma; and making sure adults &lpar;teachers and parents&rpar; are appropriately distanced from each other&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The latest school cases are not unexpected&comma; and don’t mean that school closures across the board are required&period; They show the system is working as it should — we are spotting cases early and intervening quickly to limit the spread&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When we do find COVID-19 cases in children&comma; we don’t usually find cases of child-to-child transmission&period; But of course&comma; we still need to go through the process of managing each case as it arises&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If there are ongoing cases in the community&comma; it is likely that cases will continue to occur in students or teachers&comma; and schools will need to have contingency plans for this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Parents need to make sure their children are well before sending them to school&comma; and be prepared to get them tested and to keep them at home if they show any sign of illness&period; And of course&comma; hammer home the message about hand washing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hand washing and physical distancing remain the very best things we can do to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading&period;<&excl;-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag&period; Please DO NOT REMOVE&period; --><img style&equals;"border&colon; none &excl;important&semi; box-shadow&colon; none &excl;important&semi; margin&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; max-height&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; max-width&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; min-height&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; min-width&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; opacity&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; outline&colon; none &excl;important&semi; padding&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; text-shadow&colon; none &excl;important&semi;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;counter&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;content&sol;141445&sol;count&period;gif&quest;distributor&equals;republish-lightbox-basic" alt&equals;"The Conversation" width&equals;"1" height&equals;"1" &sol;><&excl;-- End of code&period; If you don't see any code above&comma; please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button&period; The page counter does not collect any personal data&period; More info&colon; https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;republishing-guidelines --><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;profiles&sol;allen-cheng-94997">Allen Cheng<&sol;a>&comma; Professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology&comma; <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;institutions&sol;monash-university-1065">Monash University&period; <&sol;a><&sol;em>This article is republished from <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com">The Conversation<&sol;a> under a Creative Commons license&period; Read the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;yes-weve-seen-schools-close-but-the-evidence-still-shows-kids-are-unlikely-to-catch-or-spread-coronavirus-141445">original article<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;h6>&NewLine;

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