N L Siegfried, A De Voux, K Jona, J A Yun, T Chetty, M Mabona, F Els, H Mdose, L Kuonza, M Hsiao, C Mathews
There is no current active or passive disease surveillance programme focused on schools in South Africa. As such the country is missing an opportunity to rapidly and effectively flag and address pathogen outbreaks, for example SARS-CoV-2, in a key closed setting. Furthermore, the role of school transmission in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus within communities is uncertain. Objective. This pilot study, conducted during March 2022 in Cape Town, aimed to indicate the feasibility of conducting intense active contact-tracing in a school environment prior to a large national study to compare school versus community SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk...
May 5, 2023: South African Medical Journal