2026-04-17T05:41:03Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:11351/74042025-10-24T10:22:16Zcom_2072_378070com_2072_378040col_2072_378092

Schools as a Framework for COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance of Children in Catalonia, Spain: A Population-Based Study Soriano-Arandes, Antoni Pino, David Soler Palacín, Pere Perramon, Aida Català, Martí Lazcano, Uxue Antón Pagarolas, Andrés Andrés Vergés, Cristina Institut Català de la Salut [Perramon A] Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. [Soriano-Arandes A, Soler-Palacin P] Unitat de Malalties Infeccioses i Immunodeficiències Pediàtriques, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. [Pino D] Department of Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC•BarcelonaTech), Barcelona, Spain. [Lazcano U] Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya (AQuAS), Barcelona, Spain. [Andrés C, Antón A] Unitat de Virus Respiratoris, Servei de Microbiologia, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. [Català M] Department of Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC•BarcelonaTech), Barcelona, Spain. Comparative Medicine and Bioimage Centre of Catalonia (CMCiB), Fundació Institut d’Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), Badalona, Spain Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus COVID-19 (Malaltia) - Epidemiologia - Catalunya Salut ambiental - Catalunya DISEASES::Virus Diseases::RNA Virus Infections::Nidovirales Infections::Coronaviridae Infections::Coronavirus Infections Other subheadings::Other subheadings::Other subheadings::/epidemiology HEALTH CARE::Environment and Public Health::Public Health::Environment and Public Health::Public Health::Public Health Practice::Population Surveillance::Public Health Surveillance GEOGRAPHICALS::Geographic Locations::Europe::Spain ENFERMEDADES::virosis::infecciones por virus ARN::infecciones por Nidovirales::infecciones por Coronaviridae::infecciones por Coronavirus Otros calificadores::Otros calificadores::Otros calificadores::/epidemiología ATENCIÓN DE SALUD::ambiente y salud pública::salud pública::ambiente y salud pública::salud pública::práctica de la salud pública::vigilancia de la población::vigilancia en salud pública DENOMINACIONES GEOGRÁFICAS::localizaciones geográficas::Europa (continente)::España COVID-19; Niño; Escuelas COVID-19; Nen; Escoles COVID-19; Child; Schools Objective: We describe and analyze the childhood (<18 years) COVID-19 incidence in Catalonia, Spain, during the first 36 weeks of the 2020-2021 school-year and to compare it with the incidence in adults. Methods: Data on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tests were obtained from the Catalan Agency for Quality and Health Assessment. Overall, 7,203,663 SARS-CoV-2 tests were performed, of which 491,819 were positive (6.8%). We collected epidemiological data including age-group incidence, diagnostic effort, and positivity rate per 100,000 population to analyze the relative results for these epidemiological characteristics. Results: Despite a great diagnostic effort among children, with a difference of 1,154 tests per 100,000 population in relation to adults, the relative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 for <18 years was slightly lower than for the general population, and it increased with the age of the children. Additionally, positivity of SARS-CoV-2 in children (5.7%) was lower than in adults (7.2%), especially outside vacation periods, when children were attending school (4.9%). Conclusions: A great diagnostic effort, including mass screening and systematic whole-group contact tracing when a positive was detected in the class group, was associated with childhood SARS-CoV-2 incidence and lower positivity rate in the 2020-2021 school year. Schools have been a key tool in epidemiological surveillance rather than being drivers of SARS-CoV-2 incidence in Catalonia, Spain. This study was partially supported by the Direcció General de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (DGRIS), Catalan Health Ministry, Generalitat de Catalunya through Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). 2022-04-25T14:44:54Z 2022-04-25T14:44:54Z 2021-09 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Perramon A, Soriano-Arandes A, Pino D, Lazcano U, Andrés C, Català M, et al. Schools as a Framework for COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance of Children in Catalonia, Spain: A Population-Based Study. Front Pediatr. 2021 Sep;9:754744. 2296-2360 https://hdl.handle.net/11351/7404 10.3389/fped.2021.754744 34568244 000698002300001 http://hdl.handle.net/11351/7404 eng Frontiers in Pediatrics;9 https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.754744 Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess application/pdf application/pdf image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Frontiers Media Scientia