英国的新变种虽然致死率不算高,但是对孩子的传染性增加,英国可能会考虑再次关闭学校。这几天英国的确很猛。
3 hr 9 min ago
UK scientific advisers say new Covid-19 variant may require schools to be closed
From CNN’s Mick Krever, Zahid Mahmood and Duarte Mendonca in Portugal
Scientists advising the British government on the response to Covid-19 believe that because of the new variant, it is “highly unlikely” that the outbreak’s growth can be suppressed if schools remain fully open.
In the minutes of a Dec. 22 meeting released on Thursday, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said:
“It is highly unlikely that measures with stringency and adherence in line with the measures in England in November (i.e. with schools open) would be sufficient to maintain R below 1 in the presence of the new variant.”
The British government on Wednesday announced a series of delays in the reopening of schools in January. Primary schools in areas where there is the highest rate of infection will not return yet, with no date set.
The list of areas published by the Department for Education features London, Essex, Kent, East Sussex, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire. Secondary schools across most of England will also remain closed for an extra two weeks for most pupils, an extension of the previously announced, staged return.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said that the “overwhelming majority” of primary schools (pupils aged 5 – 11) would open as planned on Jan. 4 and emphasized that closures are only being used as a “last resort.”
In the Dec. 22 meeting, SAGE scientists said that closing secondary schools would likely have “a greater affect than closing primary schools.” The panel also cautioned that it “remains difficult to distinguish where transmission between children takes place, and it is important to consider contacts made outside of schools.”
In research released earlier this month, British researchers said that they have evidence that coronavirus is not being spread by schools.
“What you see very clearly is in areas of very high transmission, adult rates went down very, very quickly because of the lockdown,” lead researcher Shamez Ladhani of Public Health England said at the time. “And a week later, children's rates also started going down, which adds to this whole idea that it's the community infection rates that tends to drive infections in school aged-children.”