(At the request of people who are professionally in contact with children - April-May 2020)
By means of a quick literature review, KCE investigated the susceptibility of children to the coronavirus and the role they play in its transmission. It appears that there are still many uncertainties about this issue. This makes it difficult to estimate the public health risks when schools are reopened. Contact investigations are currently being carried out across the country to identify cases of (potential) contamination as soon as possible. However, when a large number of corona cases occur in schools, "outbreak teams" should also investigate the role of schoolchildren in corona infection. Thanks to such a population study scientific information on the risk of infection from school-aged children could be obtained, and this is urgently needed.
In addition, epidemiological studies are recommended to describe the course of a corona infection in children. And to monitor immunity in children, more children should have regular blood tests.
Download the document: Transmission of the coronavirus by children (980.32 KB) "pdf"
