Coronavirus: Singapore defends move not to close schools earlier as scientists agree impact is small
- From Wednesday, the city state, which had been one of a handful of countries not to close its schools, will do so as it moves to full home-based learning
- It comes as a new study from researchers at University College London suggests schools closures will do little to stop the spread of Covid-19
It was the “correct” decision to leave them open as young people don’t seem to be as affected by the virus as adults, while there is no evidence they are vectors of transmission, the city state’s education minister, Ong Ye Kung, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
From Wednesday, Singapore will close its schools as the city state moves to full home-based learning. It was one of a handful of countries that had resisted doing so, citing early research that children are not as affected as adults, even when more than 160 countries had already shut their schools.
On Monday, researchers at University College London said evidence from flu epidemics and outbreaks caused by other coronaviruses suggests the impact of school closures on the spread of the disease will be small.
“We know from previous studies that school closures are likely to have the greatest effect if the virus has low transmissibility and attack rates are higher in children. This is the opposite of Covid-19,” said Russell Viner, an expert at UCL’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health who co-led the research.
“Policymakers need to be aware of the equivocal evidence when considering school closures for Covid-19 given the profound and long lasting effect they will have on children – particularly the most disadvantaged.”