(1/5) Pre-print study (interpret carefully) of contact tracing in Trento, Italy. Children aged 0-14 slightly less likely to be infected than adults (attack rate: 8.4% vs. 13.3% overall), but more likely to transmit virus (22.4% vs. 13.2% overall). #COVID19
medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
(2/5) Many of the children who transmitted the virus were aged under 10. The authors suggested that high transmission in children could be attributable to the difficultly of isolating a child with the virus. Adults may adhere to isolation precautions more readily than children.
(3/5) The study has some limitations. Not all contacts were tested; in many instances the development of symptoms plus a link to a known case was relied upon to determine if someone had become infected.
(4/5) Because children generally have more mild disease than adults, more cases in children could have been missed than in adults. The effect of this would be to underestimate the vulnerability of children to infection.
(5/5) The authors suggest a "policy of maximum caution with respect to the reopening of children's communities and primary schools."
Addendum: I think the category "25-29" in the table is a typo and should read "15-29".
