Implications of the school-household network structure on SARS-CoV-2 transmission under school reopening strategies in England.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Munday JD
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8007691 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Implications of the school-household network structure on SARS-CoV-2 transmission under school reopening strategies in England.
Munday James D JD Sherratt Katharine K Meakin Sophie S Endo Akira A Pearson Carl A B CAB Hellewell Joel J Abbott Sam S Bosse Nikos I NI Atkins Katherine E KE Wallinga Jacco J Edmunds W John WJ van Hoek Albert Jan AJ Funk Sebastian S
Nature communications 20210329 1
In early 2020 many countries closed schools to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Since then, governments have sought to relax the closures, engendering a need to understand associated risks. Using address records, we construct a network of schools in England connected through pupils who share households. We evaluate the risk of transmission between schools under different reopening scenarios. We show that whilst reopening select year-groups causes low risk of large-scale transmission, reopening ...[more]
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Project description:Family clusters have contributed significantly to the onward spread of SARS-CoV-2. However, the dynamics of viral transmission in this setting remain incompletely understood. We describe the clinical and viral-phylogenetic characteristics of a family cluster of SARS-CoV-2 infections with a high attack rate, and explore how whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can inform outbreak investigations in this context. In this cluster, the first symptomatic case was a 22-month-old infant who developed rhinorrhoea and sneezing 2 days prior to attending a family gathering. Subsequently, seven family members in attendance at this event were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infections, including the infant described. WGS revealed indistinguishable SARS-CoV-2 genomes recovered from the adults at the gathering, which were closely related genetically to B.1 lineage viruses circulating in the local community. However, a divergent viral sub-lineage was recovered from the infant and another child, each harbouring a distinguishing spike substitution (N30S). This suggested that the infant was unlikely to be the primary case, despite displaying symptoms first, and additional analysis of her nasopharyngeal swab revealed a picornavirus co-infection to account for her early symptoms. Our findings demonstrate how WGS can elucidate the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infections within household clusters and provide useful information to support outbreak investigations. Additionally, our description of SARS-CoV-2 viral lineages and notable variants circulating in Ireland to date provides an important genomic-epidemiological baseline in the context of vaccine introduction.
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