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As the start of the new school year approaches, parents and teachers will be tackling the start of the new school year day by day. To reassure families, Public Health France unveils its report on the role of establishments in the transmission of Covid-19.
Two weeks before the start of the school year, schools are preparing to welcome schoolchildren with a lighter protocol. To reassure parents and teachers, Public Health France takes stock of "the role of schools in the transmission of the virus" in a new report. To do this, the agency relied on data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which compiles the main questions around the start of the school year. Namely, the characteristics of the disease in children and the impact of a school closure on the fight against the coronavirus.
In its report, the agency takes into account children under 18 "in the countries of the European Union, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom". This "overview of epidemiology" reveals that only a "small proportion", or 5%, of all confirmed covid-19 cases in this area concern young people. Also, children are even less affected by a severe form of the disease compared to other populations and they are "much less likely to be hospitalized".
Most of the time, the infection would often be milder or asymptomatic. "This means that the infection may go unnoticed or go undiagnosed ", underlines Public Health France. This finding therefore tends to reassure the role of children in the spread of the virus, like the majority of studies. “If physical distancing and hygiene measures are applied, schools are unlikely to be more favorable environments for the spread of the virus than work or leisure environments with similar population densities. "
The youngest would therefore have, for the most part, mild symptoms but a significant viral load.