Students attend a lesson at Weaverham High School, as the coronavirus disease COVID 19 lockdown begins to ease in Cheshire, England, on March 9, 2021. ReUTERS Jason Cairnduff File PAGE 7 Photograph (spy )
LONDON, Oct 14 Reuters - COVID 19 infections in children in England rose in September after schools returned from summer holidays, helping to keep cases high even as there was a fall among adults, a large prevalence study showed on Thursday.
The REACT - 1 study, led by Imperial College London is the latest to find that more children are being exposed for COVID -19 after the reopening of schools at the beginning of September. Infection numbers in England are currently much higher than the high infection rates of other western European countries, with more than 30,000 new cases reported every day this month, but have not risen above summer levels since the return of schools in Britain despite the higher rate in children.
The study found that prevalence in 13 to 17 year old -year-olds was 2.55% between Sept 9 - 27; with prevalence in those aged 5 to 12 at 2.32% Prevalence for every adult age group was estimated below 1%.
The study found that the epidemic was growing among those under 17 with an estimated reproduction R number of 1.18. An R number above 1 implies exponential growth, while a number below 1 indicates the epidemic is shrinking.
The epidemic was estimated to be steady in 18 - 54 year olds, with an R number of 0.81; the epidemic was broadly shrinking among those over 55 years old.
Despite around 90% of aged over 18 s having only one dose of COVID - 19 vaccine, vaccination rates of children are much lower and broad vaccination of those aged 12 -- 15 began only last month.
Prevalence was high and increasing in school aged children during September, told Paul Elliott, who led the study, reporters.
If vaccine uptake is increasing among unvaccinated and somewhat vaccinated children, will increase the potential for transmission to others. The study is intended to give an estimate of infection numbers that are impacted by the trends in people coming forward to be tested for COVID symptoms.
There was the overall prevalence of 0.83% out of 100,527 valid swabs submitted, higher than the 0.63% recorded by the study in July before cases peaked later that month.