SARS-CoV-2 transmission in K-12 schools in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region: a descriptive epidemiologic study

D, Bark; Dhillon, Nalin; St-Jean, Marie-Lou; Kinniburgh, Brooke; McKee, Geoff; Choi, Alex

doi:10.1101/2021.05.15.21257271

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in educational settings seems to be a reflection of SARS-CoV-2 transmission at the community level (13,14). A study performed in Canada comparing school-related cases and outbreaks of COVID-19 to those in the general population detected more than seventy school clusters, but the weekly incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the schools was always lower than the incidence in the whole population, and the authors concluded that schools were not a significant driver of SARS-CoV-2 transmission (15), mainly when compared to households (16). Additionally, a recent study suggests that children in the age-group of 0-9 years do not have substantial rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection during school attendance and are unlikely to play a substantial role in the spread of the infection (17).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Schools as a Framework for COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance of Children in Catalonia, Spain: A Population-Based Study

et al. 2021

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Objective: We describe and analyze the childhood (<18 years) COVID-19 incidence in Catalonia, Spain, during the first 36 weeks of the 2020-2021 school-year and to compare it with the incidence in adults.Methods: Data on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tests were obtained from the Catalan Agency for Quality and Health Assessment. Overall, 7,203,663 SARS-CoV-2 tests were performed, of which 491,819 were positive (6.8%). We collected epidemiological data including age-group incidence, diagnostic effort, and positivity rate per 100,000 population to analyze the relative results for these epidemiological characteristics.Results: Despite a great diagnostic effort among children, with a difference of 1,154 tests per 100,000 population in relation to adults, the relative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 for <18 years was slightly lower than for the general population, and it increased with the age of the children. Additionally, positivity of SARS-CoV-2 in children (5.7%) was lower than in adults (7.2%), especially outside vacation periods, when children were attending school (4.9%).Conclusions: A great diagnostic effort, including mass screening and systematic whole-group contact tracing when a positive was detected in the class group, was associated with childhood SARS-CoV-2 incidence and lower positivity rate in the 2020-2021 school year. Schools have been a key tool in epidemiological surveillance rather than being drivers of SARS-CoV-2 incidence in Catalonia, Spain.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Schools as a Framework for COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance of Children in Catalonia, Spain: A Population-Based Study

et al. 2021

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“…The risk of secondary SARS-CoV-2 transmission within schools has been heavily debated. On one hand, viral culture studies suggest that children may be less infectious than adults 2 , contact tracing studies show low rates of in-school transmission [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] , and surveillance studies demonstrate little increased transmission when schools re-opened [14][15][16][17][18][19] . On the other hand, seroprevalence studies have been conducted to account for asymptomatic transmission, but many studies have reported data early in the pandemic, or in the setting of partial school closure 15,[20][21][22] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among Vancouver public school staff in British Columbia, Canada

Goldfarb

Mâsse

Watts

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Importance: Contact-tracing studies suggest minimal secondary transmission in schools. However, there are limited school data accounting for asymptomatic cases, particularly late in the 2020/21 school year, and in the context of uninterrupted in-person schooling and widespread community transmission. Objectives: To determine the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a sample of school staff, compared to the community, and to COVID-19 rates among all students and staff within the same school population. Design: Incident COVID-19 cases among students and school staff using public health data, with an embedded cross-sectional serosurvey among school staff sampled from February 10 to May 15, 2021, comparing to age, sex and geographic location-matched blood donors sampled in January 2021. Setting: Vancouver School District (British Columbia, Canada) from kindergarten to grade 12. Participants: Active school staff enrolled from February 3 to April 23, 2021. Main outcome measures: SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a sample of school staff using spike (S)-based testing (unvaccinated staff) or N-based serology testing (vaccinated staff). Results: The incidence of COVID-19 cases among students attending in-person was 9.8 per 1,000 students during the 2020/21 school year (N = 47,280 students), and among staff was 13 per 1,000 since the beginning of the pandemic (N = 7,071 active school staff). In total, 1,689 school staff (64% elementary, 28% secondary, 8.3% school board staff or multiple grades) completed the questionnaire, 78.2% had classroom responsibilities, and spent a median of 17.6 hours in class per week [IQR: 5.0 - 25 hours]. Although 21.5% (363/1,686) reported close contact with a COVID-19 case, only 1.4% (24/1688) of the school staff reported having had a positive viral nucleic acid test. Of this group, five believed they acquired the infection at school. The adjusted seroprevalence in staff who gave blood (1,556/1,689, 92.1%) was 2.3% [95%CI: 1.6 - 3.2%] compared to 2.3% [95%CI: 1.7 - 3.0%] in blood donors. Conclusion and relevance: Despite high reported COVID-19 cases among students and staff, and frequent within-school exposures, we found no detectable increase in seroprevalence among school staff above the community seroprevalence. These findings corroborate claims that, with appropriate mitigation strategies, in-person schooling is not associated with significantly increased risk for school staff.

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“…These results are also in keeping with other seroprevalence and contact tracing studies conducted in BC school settings that showed low rates of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. [15][16][17][18][19] We demonstrated a higher seropositivity among infants and young adults compared with schoolaged children. Our findings contrast with other cohorts in which seropositivity has been reported.…”

Section: Anti-s Igg Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted August 18, 2023. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.13.23294036 doi: medRxiv preprint Enrollment for each phase was based on five, 5-year age brackets (0-4, 5-9, 10-14, [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. There was a target sample size of 500 participants per 5-year age group, per phase; each phase was completed when target sample size was reached.…”

Section: (Which Was Not Certified By Peer Review)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 infection in unvaccinated children and young adults

Silverberg

Shulha

McMillan

et al. 2023

Preprint

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BACKGROUND: Pediatric COVID-19 cases are often mild or asymptomatic, which has complicated estimations of disease burden using existing testing practices. We aimed to determine the age-specific population seropositivity and risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity among children and young adults during the pandemic in British Columbia (BC). METHODS: We conducted two cross-sectional serosurveys: phase 1 enrolled children and adults <25 years between November 2020-May 2021 and phase 2 enrolled children <10 years between June 2021-May 2022 in BC. Participants completed electronic surveys and self-collected finger-prick dried blood spot (DBS) samples. Samples were tested for immunoglobulin G antibodies against ancestral spike protein (S). Descriptive statistics from survey data were reported and two multivariable analyses were conducted to evaluate factors associated with seropositivity. RESULTS: A total of 2864 participants were enrolled, of which 95/2167 (4.4%) participants were S-seropositive in phase 1 across all ages, and 61/697 (8.8%) unvaccinated children aged under ten years were S-seropositive in phase 2. Overall, South Asian participants had a higher seropositivity than other ethnicities (13.5% vs. 5.2%). Of 156 seropositive participants in both phases, 120 had no prior positive SARS-CoV-2 test. Young infants and young adults had the highest reported seropositivity rates (7.0% and 7.2% respectively vs. 3.0-5.6% across other age groups). CONCLUSION: SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity among unvaccinated children and young adults was low in May 2022, and South Asians were disproportionately infected. This work demonstrates the need for improved diagnostics and reporting strategies that account for age-specific differences in pandemic dynamics and acceptability of testing mechanisms.

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SARS-CoV-2 transmission in K-12 schools in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region: a descriptive epidemiologic study

Cited by 4 publications

References 32 publications

Schools as a Framework for COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance of Children in Catalonia, Spain: A Population-Based Study

Schools as a Framework for COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance of Children in Catalonia, Spain: A Population-Based Study

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among Vancouver public school staff in British Columbia, Canada

Factors associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 infection in unvaccinated children and young adults

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