Coronavirus infection rate in schools is low, according to a study held by the Medical Faculty of the TU Dresden and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus.
The researchers evaluated 2,000 children and teachers at a school in the German state of Saxony. Findings showed very few coronavirus antibodies among them. The study suggests that schools and young people do not contribute largely to the transmission amid concerns.
The study, which was held in May, revealed that only 12 out of 2,045 blood samples gathered from students and teachers from across 13 secondary schools in the region were said to have antibodies.
According to the universities, “the dynamics of virus spreading have been overestimated." They noted that the schools did not turn into the coronavirus “hotspot” after reopening.
“The numbers provide information about the current immunity status of teachers and students ... (and) provide important clues as to how school operations can continue after the summer holidays,” the Medical Faculty of the TU Dresden stated.
″Corona cases were confirmed in three of the schools examined. Nevertheless, above average antibodies were not detectable among the teachers and students of the institutions concerned, which suggests that the schools have not developed into hotspots,” the statement reads.
No "silent, symptom-free infection" in children
The researchers conducted the tests in several schools where there had been outbreaks of the virus. Data showed that 24 of the subjects had at least one confirmed Covid-19 case in their household. Only one of those 24 individuals contained antibodies.
It is considered the biggest study in Germany to date and was held after the reopening of its schools. The goal was to determine the number of students and teachers that have antibodies against the coronavirus and how its spread shifts over time.
Professor Reinhard Berner, director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine of the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, pointed out that the study proved that children were not spreaders of the virus as much as had been believed.
“We are going into the summer vacation 2020 with an immunity status that is no different from that in March 2020. Of the more than 2,000 blood samples examined, only 12 were able to detect antibodies, which corresponds to a share of well below one percent. This means that a silent, symptom-free infection in the students and teachers we examined has so far occurred less frequently than we had suspected,” he said.
According to a Reuters report, Berner said that “children may even act as a brake on infection.” He reportedly said that infections in schools did not develop an outbreak and that the transmission within households was less dynamic than previously expected.
“These results of the investigation provide evidence that virus transmission in families is not as dynamic as previously thought,” Berner said in a comment within the study.
“More than 20 of the examined subjects had at least one proven corona case in the family; however, antibodies were found in only one of these study participants, which would mean that the majority of schoolchildren did not go through an infection themselves despite an infection in the household. This finding must also be taken into account when it comes to deciding on measures to limit contact.”
