This archive report was first published on 11 July 2020.
Scientists from the Institut Pasteur in France conducted a study to understand the spread of Covid-19 in schools. In early February, two high school teachers in Crépy-en-Valois, a community in northern France, became ill with Covid-19 before schools closed.
Researchers tested the school's students and staff for coronavirus antibodies and found that 38% of the students, 43% of the teachers, and 59% of other school staff had antibodies, according to Dr. Arnaud Fontanet, an epidemiologist at the institute.
“Clearly you know that the virus circulated in the high school,” Dr. Fontanet said.
Later, the team tested students and staff from six elementary schools in the community. The closure of schools in mid-February provided an opportunity to see if younger children had become infected when schools were in session.
Researchers found antibodies in only 9% of elementary students, 7% of teachers, and 4% of other staff. They identified three students in three different elementary schools who had attended classes with acute coronavirus symptoms before the schools closed.
None of the symptomatic students appeared to have infected other children, teachers, or staff, Dr. Fontanet said. Two of those symptomatic students had siblings in the high school, and the third had a sister who worked in the high school.
The research also indicated that when an elementary school student tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, there was a very high probability that the student's parents had also been infected, Dr. Fontanet said.
Dr. Fontanet suggested that the findings imply that older children may be able to transmit the virus more easily than younger children.
