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A global assessment of the impact of school closure in reducing COVID-19 spread.

Authors :
Wu, Joseph T.
Shujiang Mei
Sihui Luo
Kathy Leung
Di Liu
Qiuying Lv
Jian Liu
Yuan Li
Prem, Kiesha
Jit, Mark
Jianping Weng
Tiejian Feng
Xueying Zheng
Leung, Gabriel M.
Source :
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences; 1/10/2022, Vol. 380 Issue 2214, p1-17, 17p
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Prolonged school closure has been adopted worldwide to control COVID-19. Indeed, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization figures show that two-thirds of an academic year was lost on average worldwide due to COVID-19 school closures. Such pre-emptive implementation was predicated on the premise that school children are a core group for COVID-19 transmission. Using surveillance data from the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Anqing together, we inferred that compared with the elderly aged 60 and over, children aged 18 and under and adults aged 19-59 were 75% and 32% less susceptible to infection, respectively. Using transmission models parametrized with synthetic contact matrices for 177 jurisdictions around the world, we showed that the lower susceptibility of school children substantially limited the effectiveness of school closure in reducing COVID-19 transmissibility. Our results, together with recent findings that clinical severity of COVID-19 in children is lower, suggest that school closure may not be ideal as a sustained, primary intervention for controlling COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1364503X
Volume :
380
Issue :
2214
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
153841002
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0124