Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

August 5, 2020

Stepwise School Opening Online and Off-Line and an Impact on the Epidemiology of COVID-19 in the Pediatric Population

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  • [pre-print, not peer reviewed] Yoon et al. observed no increase in pediatric COVID-19 cases following school re-openings in South Korea. School openings were delayed from March 2020. Instead, online classes began on April 9 and in-person classes started between May 20 to June 8 in four steps by different grades. As of July 11, among the 11,000 students and staff screened for SARS-CoV-2, only 45 children from 40 schools were diagnosed with COVID-19 after in-person classes started, 25 (56%) of whom were presumed to be infected by family members. Notably, as of July 11, only 964 Korean children age ≤19 years had been diagnosed with COVID-19 nationwide, making up around 7% of all diagnoses. 

Yoon et al. (Aug 4, 2020). Stepwise School Opening Online and Off-Line and an Impact on the Epidemiology of COVID-19 in the Pediatric Population. Pre-print downloaded on August 5 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.03.20165589