School closures will have little impact on COVID-19 control, review finds By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Geography teacher Dinar Pamukci stands in front of the multimedia board at Hesse’s largest high school, Karl-Rehbein-Schule, in Hanau, after authorities decided to close schools in most of Germany’s federal states due to the coronavi

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) – School closures do not tend to help contain the spread of infections during outbreaks of disease such as COVID-19, but will have a big impact on how societies restart after lockdown, scientists said on Monday.

Data on the effects of school closures on COVID-19 are limited as the pandemic is still under way, but researchers at University College London said evidence from flu epidemics and outbreaks caused by other coronaviruses suggests their impact on the spread of the disease will be small.

“We know from previous studies that school closures are likely to have the greatest effect if the virus has low transmissibility and attack rates are higher in…