European scientists find that kids under 10 do not have receptors for Covid-19

Children started going back to classrooms in South Africa at the beginning of the week after the biggest teachers’ union dropped its objections to the gradual re-opening.  The children that turned up yesterday were grades 7 and 12 and they trickled into schools after standing in long queues as they waited in line for their temperatures to be checked.  Many parents are however worried that the safeguards that are in place for social distancing and proper washing of hands are not adequate in many schools.   In the United Kingdom, the government decided yesterday to axe a plan for all primary schools to reopen before their summer after pressure from teachers unions and parents. There are lessons to be learnt from other European countries that have re-opened schools such as Denmark and Germany. The Wall Street Journal’s Bojan Pacevski told Alec Hogg in an interview that the European experience has shown that there had been no cases of children transmitting Covid-19 to each other or their parents. Pacevski said science appears to point to a receptor that enables the virus to enter humans that children under the age of 10 do not have. – Linda van Tilburg