Almost 50 students were infected in one week: "Like a storm"

Corona falls are increasing among children and young people.

It shows reports from both the Public Health Agency and the country's regions.

Last week, Västra Götaland registered an increase of 57 percent in the age groups 10-19, and in the Public Health Agency's latest weekly report, 15-19-year-olds are singled out as the group with the highest proportion of infected.

Småland, Sörmland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten, Stockholm and Västra Götaland have all reported cluster outbreaks in schools in recent weeks and several schools - even for younger children - have been forced to switch to distance education.

"Like a storm"

In Västerbotten, there have been 13 school outbreaks in recent weeks, eight of which last week.

The worst situation was at the Prolympia upper secondary school in Umeå - which was forced to close down its entire operations before the sports holiday.

- We received information about the first case this weekend and then we chose to send more students home.

But the infection had already taken off, says Rasmus Wengberg, principal.

Soon, 20 of the 27 students in a class had been infected, and by the end of the week, a total of 49 students and four of the staff had been found infected with covid-19.

- We have had isolated cases before but it has never spread to other students or staff.

This came like a storm and washed over us.

We did not have a chance to catch up, says Rasmus Wengberg.

Public Health Agency: Children do not drive the infection

For him, it is obvious that the infection spread between students at school.

- They talk about students not infecting each other.

But they have done it now, and they have done it properly.

However, he does not believe that the Public Health Agency's recommendations on school should be changed.

- That children need to be in school is a line that I agree with.

However, you may need to be a little more careful with this knowledge that children can infect each other.

Public Health Agency: Children are not driving

According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, there is still no clear evidence that children are driving the spread of infection.

The fact that there is an increased spread among children is rather due to the fact that the general spread of infection is increasing.

- We see if you look nationally that it is increasing among children, but it is also increasing among the elderly.

We do not believe that there is any difference or that the new virus variants are selective in children, but since the spread of the variants is large, it is also reflected among the children, said Sara Byfors from the Public Health Agency during today's press conference on corona.