At the end of September, researchers found antibodies against the virus in the blood of 14.4 percent of the children in Alken, Flanders, which was badly affected during the first wave of the epidemic. It is not possible to determine whether this is more or less than with adult fellow citizens, but it is in any case a considerable number, say virologists from the University of Leuven in Het Belang van Limburg. And primary school students were hardly inferior to seventh graders.
Young children rarely get very sick from the virus. Experts therefore still assume that they do not play a major role in the spread of the epidemic. This would be less true for teenagers.
Most children were infected by adults with whom they were close, the researchers believe, and not at school. Still, the news worries doctors about the schools reopening Monday. Belgian children go back to school after twice as long autumn holidays.
That is “not entirely without risk”, admits virologist Steven Van Gucht of the Belgian corona crisis center. But the danger has diminished as the second wave “continues to decline at a relatively rapid rate”.
By: ANP
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