Dr. Stephanie Silvera Talks About Preventing COVID-19 Spread as Schools Reopen
Posted in: College News and Events
Dr. Stephanie Sivera, Professor in the Public Health Department, talks with NJTVNews senior correspondent Briana Vannozzi about preventing the spread of COVID-19 as schools reopen in New Jersey.
“So, I do anticipate we will probably see a slight increase in cases among children, particularly, we have to separate out those who are under 18, so our K-12 students versus our college-aged students because the risk of showing symptoms is a little bit different in those groups. What we know so far around children, is that about 7% of all COVID cases are seen in people under 18. But what is really interesting is about 90% of childhood cases don’t show symptoms or are only mildly symptomatic. And I think that’s where it gets very difficult because those children can potentially be spreading the virus,” Dr. Silvera said.
She added, “In terms of how easy will it be spread or how quickly, it’s really going to depend a lot now on how well people comply with all of the mitigating factors that we have been put into place.”