How might the return to classrooms affect covid-19 transmission?

CHILDREN IN MANY countries will soon swap their video games and swimming costumes for books and uniforms when they return to classrooms after the summer holidays. School closures have been one of the most common policies to curb the spread of covid-19—and one of the most contentious. According to UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency, since the start of the outbreak schools around the world have been wholly or partly closed for two-thirds of an academic year on average, with many children reliant on limited remote learning. Some eight countries, including Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela, are yet to reopen their schools. Keeping schools closed can harm children, but reopening risks creating covid-19 hotspots. To what extent might the return to school fuel the virus’s spread?

Children can catch and transmit the virus (although their symptoms are usually mild). A review by America’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of research around the world concluded that neither increases in cases among school-aged children nor school reopenings appeared to increase transmission in general populations. In Italy, which was badly affected early in the pandemic, a study concluded that students were at a lower risk of catching covid-19 than the general population during the second wave and schools did not help drive infection rates. However, new variants and higher vaccination rates among adults may change that.