How likely is it to spread through a class?

[CovidChristmasBells]

Son's class has a positive case. Primary school. I'm surprised to say that it's the third case, so three bubbles have shut in two weeks which suggests it's amongst the kids. I'm not really afraid of Covid but does anybody have facts about how likely it is to spread to other kids? Like the transmission rate? Have any scientists actually printed the limited info?

He has a bit of a cough and cold but has done on and off for weeks. 🤷‍♀️

I can see Christmas slowly drifting away 🙄

Even in secondary school where all years were closed it was very hot and miss and most of the close friends didn’t test positive. It was very random the cases involved but involved as high number of teachers.

It seems a bit bizarre doesn't it! My friend works in secondary and they've only had 3 positive results too! I thought secondary would be much worse!

We've had our class sent home to self isolate for 2 weeks twice - teachers both times and no kids showed symptoms/tested positive. Other classes have closed with teacher or one pupil positive and no other kids have tested positive or shown symptoms.

No one really knows because most kids are asymptomatic so won’t get a test.

They’ve not published the results of mass testing in schools.

They’ve not published the results of mass testing in schools

And you have to wonder why, really. If it were reassuring I suspect it would have been published by now.

In Israel where they did the studies and published the data, they found about 60% of positive children were asymptomatic. So I just assume for every positive case there is at least one more asymptomatic.

The very, very narrow testing criteria in the UK means that we are not getting the information we'd need to understand transmission in the school environment. Although as noel says there has been some mass testing, but no results published.

The lack of information is dire. And yes I do think it is significant nothing has been published!

@CovidChristmasBells

It seems a bit bizarre doesn't it! My friend works in secondary and they've only had 3 positive results too! I thought secondary would be much worse!

I suspect it's down to where you live.

My DC school (secondary) has had umpteen cases. Every year group has been out isolating at some point. Y10/Y11 have both had two separate lots of isolation. At one point they only had Y7 and Y12 in - then Y12 went down.

School has now closed except to KW children because they can't keep going.

6 of us tested positive in my class over a week from first positive case.

I dont know the scientific information but we all caught it because my sons class had a positive case. It ripped through the class and a week later the whole school was shut. Anecdotally, ive read lots where children with close contacts didn't catch it.

They’ve not published the results of mass testing in schools

In Liverpool I thought when they mass tested children (as part of the residential testing) the number of positives were really low. Sorry I haven’t got any links to back it up, just what family up in Liverpool have told me.

I’m in Medway, we got asymptomatic mass testing for residents going on at the moment, I took DS this morning and he’s come back negative yet there are quite a lot of kids off isolating at the moment (not sure how many positives and DS isn’t a contact of any).

Work in a primary school. Five cases over various years in last six weeks (low risk area). One a member of staff caught (unknowlingly off family member), passed it to a pupil in class, who passed it onto parent (no known transmission to other pupiles). In the other four cases again no known transmission. Obviously not overall UK statistics.

Even if your DC gets it (unless he is really ill) you can still have Christmas. I guess you're prepared and have most presents, alongside store cupboard items like crisps, pickles in, things in freezer you'd like over Xmas. Iceland have deliveries availble up until Xmas so a good few basics you'd like can be ordered there. At home you can still have presents, xmas carols, nice meal, if you go to church prayers, thoughts and talk about xmas nativity, games, fun and eachother.

Yeah we can still have fun but to be honest he is an only child and very close to his cousins etc. He is already badly affected not seeing them. It absolutely will not be the same for him, even if we play with him all day. Hey ho, can't be helped. No point getting upset, it's a waste of energy. Nothing we can do 🤷‍♀️

@DrunkenKoala they used lateral flow tests in Liverpool so you probably need to double the positives to get a true result