- “contact is most common between individuals of the same/similar ages”
- “greater contact between children and adults between the ages of 25 and 55” (reflective of contact between children and their parents)

Smith College

Assumed that the level of mixing in the population was the same as during a strict lock-down, so that any changes in R are mainly caused by changes in school-age mixing. 

Impact of different school opening strategies on contact patterns and secondary infections in Midland region of England

Keeling, M., Tildesley, M., Atkins, B., Penman, B., Southall, E., Guyver-Fletcher, G., Holmes, A., McKimm, H., Gorsich, E., Hill, E., Dyson, L. (2020). The impact of school reopening on the spread of COVID-19 in England. medRxiv doi: 10.1101/2020.06.04.20121434

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.04.20121434v1

The impact of school reopening on the spread of COVID-19 in England

The analysis showed increased R values as more year groups returned to school at the same time, and among the year groups, secondary school students caused the highest increase in R when they returned to school. Interestingly, none of the scenarios raised R above 1.

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