People under the age of 20 are about half as susceptible to COVID-19 as older age groups – and are less likely to infect others, according to an Israeli study.
University of Haifa researchers found that people under age 20 are only 43 percent as susceptible as people over 20.
And with an infectivity — the ability of the virus to transmit and establish an infection — estimated at 63 percent of that of adults, children also are less likely to spread the illness to others.
For the study, lead researcher Itai Dattner and his colleagues fitted mathematical and statistical models of transmission in households to a dataset of COVID testing results from the dense city of Bnei Brak, eurekalert.org reported.
The dataset covered 637 households whose members all underwent testing for infection in the spring of 2020. Some people also received serology testing for antibodies.
The researchers also found that children are more likely than adults to receive a negative PCR test result despite actually being infected.
Children stop near a barrier set up by Israeli police on the road in the religious Israeli city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images“When we began this research, understanding children’s role in transmission was a top priority, in connection with the question of reopening schools,” Dattner said.
The findings were presented in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
