Weekly SARS-CoV-2 Sentinel Surveillance in Primary Schools, Kindergartens, and Nurseries, Germany, June‒November 2020
Martin Hoch, Sebastian Vogel, Laura Kolberg, Elisabeth Dick, Volker Fingerle, Ute Eberle, Nikolaus Ackermann, Andreas Sing, Johannes Hüebner, Anita Rack-Hoch, Tilmann Schober, Ulrich von Both
Abstract
C hildren have been disproportionately affected by public health measures in the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (1). In contrast to other age groups, children have shown lower rates of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-positive cases; lower risk for symptomatic, acute, COVID-19; a generally milder course of disease with the exception of some rare manifestations and the post-COVID-19 multisystem infl ammatory syndrome in children; and lower secondary attack rates (2-4). Susceptibility to infection in <10 years of age is estimated to be lower than that for teenagers. Accumulating evidence shows that, given limited infection control measures, SARS-CoV-2 might spread sustainably in secondary/high schools but to a lesser degree in primary schools and nurseries (2,5).