Too many children are being tested for Covid, says leading expert

Schools should be ‘almost the last places to close’, lead author Prof Russell Viner says

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Too many children are being tested for coronavirus because of an understandable but misplaced concern about school outbreaks, a leading scientist has said, as a study shows they are about 40% less likely than adults to be infected.

Prof Russell Viner of UCL and Great Ormond Street children’s hospital, the study’s lead author, is calling for schools to be kept fully open in light of the findings, because of the serious harm done to children by classroom closures.

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