A renowned infectious diseases expert who previously championed shutting schools says they should open and children should not be feared as super-spreaders of COVID-19.

Professor Nigel McMillan, director of the Infectious Diseases and Immunology Program at Griffith University, says he had supported school closures because children are historically mass spreaders of influenza viruses.

Australia’s COVID-19 statistics do not back that up, but he does want random tests of students to determine if they have antibodies for COVID-19.

“I have changed my mind,” Prof McMillan said.

“Given the data and the balance of probabilities, we could be opening schools now, particularly senior schools.

“But I would like to see random tests of students so we can see the true rate of infection in the community.

States remain split on whether children should return to schools. File image. Credit: AAP

“If the numbers are really low, then we can say that kids aren’t getting it ... it’s the missing piece of data.”

Children aged 19 and under make up a tick over four per cent of cases along Australia’s eastern seaboard while very few teachers have contracted COVID-19.

Child cases

South Australia has had just 17 cases relating to ages from 0-19, Queensland has had 48, Victoria has posted 59 while NSW has recorded 124 in the same age bracket.

Another aspect is that Australia’s infection rate has been stymied over the past few weeks even though, during lockdown, children have been prevalent at supermarkets, shopping centres and even places like hardware store Bunnings.

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“Over the last six weeks, if we’re going to see school kids spreading the virus around, we would have seen clusters and outbreaks and we are not,” Prof McMillan said.

“Teachers are not falling down like flies.”

Chevron Right Icon ‘If the numbers are really low, then we can say that kids aren’t getting it.’

Nationally, the average number of unidentified locally acquired coronavirus cases is 10 per cent.

Victoria is unsure where 138 of its 1351 cases were contracted while 366 of 3009 cases in NSW have the contact tracing team stumped.

The number is relatively low in South Australia with just seven of 438, and 42 of more than 1030 in Queensland.

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Australian Medical Association SA president Dr Chris Moy said the evidence suggested that if children were super-spreaders or asymptomatic, then there would likely be more unknown clusters of cases.

He said the statistics in Australia show children make only a small proportion of all cases and are very unlikely to be the primary source of household, or wider community, transmissions.

Australian Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has long urged states to keep schools open for all students. Credit: AAP

“On a balance of the benefits versus the risks, reopening of schools in our state appears to be the right approach,” Dr Moy said.

“Temperatures should be taken upon arrival, and parents can also do their part in ensuring that sick children do not go to school, and talking to their kids about good hygiene.”

He said if a child is showing any signs of illness, they should remain at home.