COVID spreads extensively in households, with children being a significant source of that spread. These are the findings from an antibody surveillance study published in CMAJ Open, which also shows that about 50% of household members were infected from the first-infected individual during the study period.
Although kids were less likely to spread the virus compared to adults, children and adults were equally likely to become infected from the first-infected individual.
The antibody surveillance study included 695 participants from 180 households in the Canadian city of Ottawa in Ontario, between September 2020 and March 2021. Included households had at least one member having had a confirmed COVID infection and at least one child within their household.
“Our study was conducted when we were dealing with a less transmissible virus and pandemic restrictions were strongly in place, and we still had a 50% transmission rate within households. Flash forward to where we are today with an extremely transmissible variant of COVID and the majority of pandemic restrictions lifted; it’s safe to say transmission rates will be higher even though we have a high vaccination rate amongst those who are eligible,” said Dr Maala Bhatt, the study’s lead author.
“I know many want to ‘live with COVID’ and abandon the layers of protection that were previously mandated, but it’s important to be aware of the high transmissibility of this virus in closed, indoor settings, such as schools,” she cautioned. “Our most vulnerable and our youngest children who are not yet able to be vaccinated are still at risk for COVID infection.”
In the Canadian province of Eastern Ontario, where the study was done, COVID is on the rise once again. Three-quarters of all children admitted to CHEO with COVID have come during the Omicron wave. Since the beginning of January this year a third of the roughly 4900 monthly visits to the Emergency Department were for COVID-related symptoms.
The study hypothesised that children would act as “an even greater source of spread within households with the emergence of more infectious variants.” Children also have “considerable potential to spread” in settings such as school and daycare, where they congregate indoors for long periods, especially now when masking is not required in many jurisdictions.
“While we’re lucky hospitals aren’t currently overloaded, emergency departments are and positivity rates are on the rise, even amongst children,” said Dr Bhatt, paediatric emergency physician and Director of Emergency Medicine Research at CHEO and an Investigator at the CHEO Research Institute.
“We continue to learn more about COVID and its potential long-term health impacts, and we still aren’t clear about how long immunity lasts; these are all things researchers continue to study.”
Source: University of Ottawa
