Prevalence was high and increasing in school aged children during September, said the study director.

London:

COVID-19 infections in children in England rose in September after schools returned from summer holidays, contributing to cases staying 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 getting infected with COVID-19 following the reopening of schools at the start of September.

Infection numbers in Britain are currently much higher than in other western European countries, but have not risen above summer levels following the return of schools in England despite the higher infection rates in children.

The study found that prevalence in aged 13 to 17 was 2.55 per cent between Sept 9 to 27, with prevalence in those aged 5 to 12 at 2.32 per cent. Prevalence for every adult age group was estimated below one per cent.

“Prevalence was high and increasing in school aged children during September,” Paul Elliott, director of the study, told reporters, adding that increased vaccination uptake in school-aged children and adults would help limit transmission.

The study, which analysed 100,527 valid swabs, found that the epidemic was growing among those 17 and under, with an estimated reproduction “R” number of 1.18.

An R number above one implies exponential growth, while a number below one implies the epidemic is shrinking.The epidemic was estimated to be shrinking in 18 to 54 year olds, with an R number of 0.81, while the epidemic was broadly steady among those over 55. While around 90 per cent of over 18s have had one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, vaccination rates of children are much lower, and broad vaccination of those aged 12 to 15 only began last month.

“It just could have been avoided to have this large amount of spread amongst schoolchildren…if they’d done the vaccinations earlier,” Dr Brian Ferguson of the University of Cambridge’s Division of Immunology told Reuters.

He added that while it looked like transmission from children to adults was not going to be a big problem, there was uncertainty heading into the winter.

In daily figures, Britain reported 42,776 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest number since mid-July, but UK Health Minister Sajid Javid played down the fluctuations in numbers.

“Overall things feel quite stable at this point. The numbers are a bit up, a bit down over the last few weeks,” he told Times Radio, adding government strategy was working.

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