https://socictopen.socict.org/index.php/items/show/3801
title: Children and adolescents in the CoVid-19 pandemic: Schools and daycare centers are to be opened again without restrictions. The protection of teachers, educators, carers and parents and the general hygiene rules do not conflict with this
subject: Children, school, Adolescents, kinder - garten, SARS-CoV-2
description: In the opinion of the medical societies of hygiene and pediatrics undersigning the present statement, the analyses published to date regarding transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the course of CoVid-19 show that children play a much less significant role in the spread of the virus than do adults.According to the findings available to date, not only do children and adolescents less frequently fall ill with CoVid-19, they also generally become less severely ill than do adults. The vast majority of infections in children and adolescents are asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic. Even the first analyses from China demonstrated that children and adolescents play a subordinate role in the transmission of the virus – not only to other children and adolescents, but also to adults.Taking into account regional infection rates and available resources, daycare centers, kindergartens and elementary schools promptly should be reopened. For children, this should be possible without excessive restrictions, such as clustering into very small groups, implementation of barrier precautions, maintaining appropriate distance from others or wearing masks. A factor more decisive than individual group size is the issue of sustaining the constancy of respective group members and the avoidance of intermixing. Children can be taught basic rules of hygiene such as handwashing and careful hygiene behavior when coming into contact with others during mealtimes and/or when using sanitary facilities. Independent of the prevention measures implemented for children and adolescents, the protection of teachers, educators and caregivers is crucial, (e.g., the maintenance of appropriate distance from others, use of medical masks, situation-dependent hand disinfection, when necessary, supported by regular pool testing). Children over the age of 10 and adolescents up to school graduation age are more capable of actively understanding and conforming to specific hygiene rules. For this group, maintaining appropriate di…
creator: Heininger Ulrich, Simon, Arne, Popp, Walter, Exner, Martin, Herr, Caroline, Walger, Peter, Fischbach Thomas, Hübner Johannes, Knuf, Markus, Trapp, Stefan, German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH), German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (DGPI), German Academy for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (DAKJ), Society of Hygiene, Environmental and Public Health Sciences (GHUP), Professional Association of Pediatricians in Germany (bvkj e.V.)
source: GMS Hygiene and Infection Control
publisher: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House
date: 2020
identifier: DOI: 10.3205/dgkh000346
coverage: Public aspects of medicine, Medicine, Microbiology