MPs have been told that strong mitigation measures are needed in schools to stop a “huge surge” in coronavirus transmission, as fears were raised that March 8 could be too soon for them to start to reopen.
Children aged between 12 and 16 years old are seven times more likely to bring infection into a household than an adult, and they are two times more likely to infect contacts in a household, MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on coronavirus heard.
Dr Deepti Gurdasani, epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, told the APPG the level of exposure they have is “so high so overall they contribute a lot to the transmission within schools and transmission within the community”.