Camille Aupiais (France)
Jean Verdier Hospital - APHP SAU pédiatriques (Paediatric Emergency Department)Presenter of 1 Presentation
SARS-COV-2 TRANSMISSION AMONG CHILDREN AND CARE STAFF IN DAYCARE CENTRES DURING LOCKDOWN: A CROSS-SECTIONAL, MULTICENTRE SEROPREVALENCE STUDY IN FRANCE. (ID 44)
Abstract
Background
It is not known whether very young children contribute to the transmission of COVID-19. Determining the seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in daycare centres that remained open for key workers’ children during a period of lockdown might provide data in this respect.
Methods
Between June 4th and July 3rd, 2020, children and staff having attended one of 22 daycare centres during France’s nationwide lockdown (from March 15th to May 9th, 2020) were prospectively included. Hospital staff not occupationallyexposed to patients and/or children were enrolled in a comparator group. The presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in capillary whole blood was determined using a rapid chromatographic immunoassay. We computed the raw prevalence as the percentage of individuals with a positive IgG or IgM test, and used Bayesian smoothing to account for imperfect assay sensitivity and specificity.
Results
We enrolled 327 children (mean ± standard deviation age: 1.9 ± 0.9 years), 197 daycare staff, and 164 adults in the comparator group. Positive serological tests were observed for 14 children (raw prevalence [95% confidence interval] = 4.3% [2.6, 7.1]) and 14 daycare staff (7.7% [4.2, 11.6]). After accounting for imperfect assay sensitivity and specificity, we estimated that 3.7% (95% credible interval [1.3, 6.8]) of the children and 6.8% [3.2, 11.6] of the staff had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. The comparator group fared similarly to the daycare staff with 5.5% [2.9, 10.1] testing positive leading to 5.0% [1.6, 9.8] infection rate after accounting for assay characteristics (p=0,53). An exploratory analysis suggested that seropositive children were more likely than seronegative children to have been exposed to an adult household member with confirmed COVID-19 infection (43% vs. 6%, respectively, RR=7.1 [2.2, 22.4]).
Conclusions
According to serological test results, the proportion of infected children was low. Intrafamily transmission seemed more plausible than transmission within daycare centres.
Clinical Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov 04413968