• María Del Pilar Cárdenas Soriano, José Carlos Medrano Sánchez, and José Angélica Gómez Martínez.
• Unidad Docente de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública Castilla-La Mancha, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Albacete, España. Electronic address: mcardenass@sescam.jccm.es.
• Aten Primaria. 2023 Jan 1; 55 (1): 102516102516.

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to know the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in the school setting, and the effect of the new variants on it.DesignIt is an observational longitudinal descriptive study during the first term of the academic year 21/22. SITE: Community health services.ParticipantsPreschool, elementary, secondary, and high school students.Interventionsnone.Main MeasurementsWe calculated cumulative incidence stratified by grade, source of infection and follow-up period, percentage of vaccinated cases and correlation between cumulative incidence in schooled children per week and cumulative incidence in the general population.Results1526 cases were reported, and the cumulative incidence was 3,17% and 0,48% in within-school acquired cases. 20,9% were vaccinated. During follow-up, there was an important change in incidence from weeks 49/21 on, at the time Omicron began to appear in Spain, with an increase in secondary cases, mostly high school students. We found a high correlation between general population and schooled children's cumulative incidence (R2 = 0,59).ConclusionsSARS-CoV-2 transmission in school settings has been affected by new circulating variants. Two propagation scenarios were identified, and they were like the community propagation pattern. This supports the hypothesis that school settings reflect the transmission in the community. Reinforcement of preventive measures and surveillance would have a positive effect on school settings.Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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