Coronavirus alert! Kids infected with Omicron variant remain infectious for 72 hours, says new study

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and Stanford University has provided valuable insights into how long children infected with the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus remain infectious. The study revealed that on average, children remain infectious for three days after testing positive for the virus. This finding challenges current school policies that require infected students to stay out of the classroom for five days.

Neeraj Sood, Director of the COVID-19 Initiative at USC and study co-author, emphasized, “We are basically saying five days is more than sufficient; public health and education leaders may consider shorter durations.” The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, discovered that the majority of children were infectious for three days, with a small percentage remaining infectious on day five and day 10.

Sood explained the challenge to policymakers, stating, “We want to protect the other children in the school who could potentially get infected, but at the same time, we don’t want to disrupt education for the child who is infected, given the amount of disruption that’s already happened.”

The research team conducted the study by analyzing nasal swabs from 76 children aged 7 to 18 in Los Angeles County who had tested positive for COVID-19. The participants were infected with the Omicron variant, and their samples were examined over a 10-day period to understand the duration of infectivity.

The study’s lead author, Nikhilesh Kumar, a Doctor of Medicine student at USC Keck School of Medicine, explained their approach: “We wanted to capture how infectivity changed over the 10-day window.”

This study builds upon previous research involving adults with the Omicron variant, indicating similar durations of infectivity regardless of vaccination status. The research team has called for further studies to refine policies related to school attendance during COVID-19 infections, aiming to strike a balance between health safety and educational continuity.