Children are unlikely to have been the primary source of household SARS-CoV-2 infections

Yanshan Zhu; Conor J Bloxham; Katina D Hulme; Jane E Sinclair; Zhen Wei Marcus Tong; Lauren E Steele; Ellesandra C Noye; Jiahai Lu; Keng Yih Chew; Janessa Pickering; Charles Gilks; Asha C Bowen; Kirsty R Short

We performed the searching and reviewing using the terms ("severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2"[All Fields]) OR ("SARS-CoV-2"[All Fields]) OR ("COVID-19" [All Fields]) AND ("Children"[All Fields] OR "Paediatric"[All Fields]) OR ("Family"[MeSH Terms] OR "Family"[All Fields])". To examine H5N1 avian influenza household transmission event, we used search queries "H5N1[All Fields] AND ("Children"[All Fields] OR "Paediatric"[All Fields]) AND (family cluster[All Fields])". A total of 166 articles were retrieved and reviewed. Of these, 126 articles were excluded because i) they did not report paediatric infections ii) did not report sufficient individual case data and/or iii) did not report family clusters. The intra-household transmission clusters were also sourced from information provided by local health authority's news of China, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea when available. Any intra-household cluster identified in these local sources was included in the study.