ArticleEuro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin2023
Limited transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools in Ireland during the 2020-2021 school year.
Article in Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of in-school antigen testing on the prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers during the COVID-19 pandemic era.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- COVID-19 RT-qPCR-based screening in Austrian schools and incidences in the general population: a Bayesian spatiotemporal analysis.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- School opening associated with lower test-adjusted COVID-19 case rates in children.International journal of epidemiology · 2025Observational
- The ethicality of the COVID-19 response in children and adolescents.Irish journal of medical science · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BackgroundThe role of schools in SARS-CoV-2 transmission has been a debated topic since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.AimTo examine SARS-CoV-2 transmission in all schools in Ireland during the 2020-21 school year.MethodsIn a national descriptive cross-sectional study, we investigated PCR-confirmed cases of COVID-19 among students (aged < 20 years) and staff (aged ≥ 20 years) who attended school during their infectious period to identify school close contacts. SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results of all school close contacts were pooled to obtain an overall positivity rate and to stratify positivity rate by school setting and role (i.e. student or staff).ResultsIn total, 100,474 individuals were tested as close contacts in 1,771 schools during the 2020-21 school year. An overall close contact positivity rate of 2.4% was observed across all schools (n = 2,373 secondary cases). The highest positivity rate was seen in special schools (3.4%), followed by primary (2.5%) and post-primary schools (1.8%) (p < 0.001). Of the close contacts identified, 90.5% (n = 90,953) were students and 9.5% (n = 9,521) were staff. Overall, students had a significantly higher positivity rate than staff (2.4% vs 1.8%, p < 0.001).ConclusionThis study demonstrated that a low level of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurred in Irish schools during the 2020-21 academic year. In the event of future pandemics, and as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there is a need to carefully weigh up the harms and benefits associated with disrupted education to mitigate infectious disease transmission before reflexively closing classes or schools.
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