A national study has shown enough evidence that child care centers are not liable for spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus even in communities where largely the infection is quite high. This study has been published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It has been touted to be the largest research, which has been done on the transmission of the COVID19 in child care programs in the US. The study has been led by Professor Walter Gilliam. The lead author of the study has said that the findings of the study are very encouraging and it will provide relief to the child care providers and families, who have been relying on them.
The study has analyzed around 57335 child care providers, which accommodate almost 4 million children in two-thirds of counties in the US. Experts have revealed that people who have been working during the first three months of the pandemic are no more prone to fall sick as compared to those who have not been working. Experts have said that there is no link between people working in child care centers and catching the virus. The study has clearly mentioned that child care providers are not at a higher risk of COVID19 if they have stayed at home. Earlier reports have shown that adults are at a greater risk of contracting the virus than children. Such findings have helped the experts to come up with a measuring stick for the spread of the virus in these child care centers.
Many past studies have shown that child care centers are not the hotspot for the spread of the virus. However, experts have said that in the case of influenza, children might be the main spreader and schools might stand as major hotspots. Well, it is a different case for COVID19. The findings of the national study are constant with reduced rates of infection and transmission, which have been reported by more than 33000 licensed preschool and daycare centers in California. There have been only 657 children and 1000 providers who have fallen sick due to COVID19 since March. However, many experts have been opposing the findings of the study. They have said that the study has been done much before more cases have started coming up. However, the authors of the new study have said that people should not extrapolate their findings to K-12 schools, where containing the spread of the virus is quite difficult due to the extra size of the class and more group mixing.
