Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks and infections in schools are rare, a new study by Public Health England (PHE) shows.
Just 67 individual cases were detected and 30 outbreaks among students and staff after schools reopened in June until they closed for the summer. Only 0.01% of pre-schools and primary schools had an outbreak, all of which were successfully contained and 70 children and 128 staff were affected. Over the same period, there were 25,470 cases recorded in England as a whole.
out of more than 1 million children attending pre-school and primary school in June, just 70 children were affected
Reported COVID-19 cases, clusters and outbreaks were reviewed daily across all educational settings in England until the end of July.
PHE found that there were more likely to be outbreaks in those areas that also had a high COVID-19 incidence, suggesting transmission in the community was driving the spread in schools. This demonstrates the continued need to control the spread of infection in the community to help keep schools open, with all playing their part by washing their hands, wearing face coverings, keeping distance and getting a test if they have symptoms.
Staff members were more likely to be affected by the virus than students, though not more likely than the general population as a whole. Where children did contract the infection, they were most likely to catch COVID-19 at home, usually from a parent. Half the outbreaks did not involve any students at all and transmission between students was very rare.