The report says it is “strongly in the interests of children for schools to be open” and evidence suggests outbreaks in schools are “extensions” of wider community ones.
It adds that the “spread from children to adults appears to be low”.
Children thankfully account for less than two percent of coronavirus cases.
The concern with reopening schools comes with older children and teenagers, who have wide social circles and are more likely to interact with a wide range of adults.
Prof Neil Ferguson, whose initial modelling at the start of the pandemic sparked lockdown, also warned big schools and further education colleges reopening “poses a real risk” of “case numbers going up quite sharply”.
“In terms of the reproduction value – the R value – opening high schools could increase it by as much as a half, but by as little as 0.2 or 0.3, but it will go up… [and] lead to quite rapid growth of the epidemic,” he told BBC Radio 4 last week.
Dr Isabella Eckerle, head of the emerging viruses research group at the University of Geneva, cautioned: “If we go back to the normal school day now clinging to wishful thinking that children do not play a role in the pandemic, that will come back to haunt us.”
