SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools in Korea: nationwide cohort study.

Choe, Young June; Park, Young-Joon; Kim, Eun-Young; Jo, Myoungyoun; Cho, Eun Young; Lee, Hyunju; Kim, Yun-Kyung; Kim, Yae-Jean et al. · Arch Dis Child · 2022

prospective_cohort · Level II

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Abstract

There is an urgent public need to readdress the school closure strategies. We aimed to describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 in schools and school-aged children to understand their roles in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 in Korea. Retrospective cohort study. All schools in Korea PATIENTS: All school-aged children in Korea. None (observational study). Incidence rate, proportion of affected schools. Between February and December 2020, the incidence rate was lower among school-aged children (63.2-79.8 per 100 000) compared with adults aged 19 and above (130.4 per 100 000). Household was the main route of transmission (62.3%), followed by community (21.3%) and school clusters (7.9%). Among the schools in Korea, 52% of secondary schools had COVID-19 cases, followed by 39% of primary schools and 3% of kindergartens. We found that schools and school-aged children aged 7-18 years were not the main drivers of COVID-19 transmission. The major sources of transmission were households.

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