The role of children in the spread of COVID-19: Using household data from Bnei Brak, Israel, to estimate the relative susceptibility and infectivity of children.

ABSTRACT: One of the significant unanswered questions about COVID-19 epidemiology relates to the role of children in transmission. This study uses data on infections within households in order to estimate the susceptibility and infectivity of children compared to those of adults. The data were collected from households in the city of Bnei Brak, Israel, in which all household members were tested for COVID-19 using PCR (637 households, average household size of 5.3). In addition, serological tests were performed on a subset of the individuals in the study. Inspection of the PCR data shows that children are less likely to be tested positive compared to adults (25% of children positive over all households, 44% of adults positive over all households, excluding index cases), and the chance of being positi

SUBMITTER: Dattner I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7877572 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature