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How to prepare kids for the return to school

Associate Professor MargieDanchin from the Murdoch Children'sResearch Institute joined the Weekend Breakfast team on the News Channel to talk through some common questions and concerns parents have upon the return to school this year.

Q: What happens if a child does contract COVID? What are the implications for the child? How does it play out within the body?

A: So if a child gets COVID, and particularly with Omicron variant, we have seen on an individual basis that it presents pretty much like many other respiratory infections andprimary school-aged children are at the lowest risk of severe disease.

So what we see particularly is they may have a runny nose, a cough, a fever, chills and sweats, some experience very, very mild symptoms and some may be in bed for a couple of days and take a week or so to recover. And about one-in-five children have no symptoms at all. But we do know that between 1 to 2 per centof children who test positive with symptoms will need admission to hospital and it's those kids that we want to prevent being admitted to hospital and also make sure that these kids are vaccinated now and we have seen a fantastic response to vaccination as well.

Q: If a child was to contract COVID,how soon and, of course, recovers,how soon before they can then gettheir booster shot, their secondshot, or their firstvaccine?

A: At the moment we're recommending if the child has had COVID infection that they wait about four weeks. Now, of course, that will potentially vary on an individual basis. If a parent has an early appointment, it would be fine to get them vaccinated at two or three weeks. The key point is that they need to have fully recovered and we do know that the severer presentation of COVID infection called MISCin children which happens in about one-in-3,000 kids, that happens about two to six weeks after the acute illness. So in general, we'd like to at least wait a month, make sure the child has recovered. And also that initial COVID infection does stimulate the immune system, the child will have antibodies on board and then having a pause and then giving the vaccine will give a really strong immuneboost to the child.

Q: What happens to the rest of the family if a child contracts COVID?

A: So if the child tests positive, they need to go home and isolate for seven days and the family members who are close contacts also need to test and isolate. But what is different now, so particularly in New South Wales, Victoria, ACT,if childrentest negative, they can go back to school as long as they don't have symptoms. So that is a bit of a difference now COVID is starting to be treated a bit like other infections in children, parents are notified, if the children around them have symptoms they need to test.

And thenwe have also seen the introduction of the asymptomatic surveillance of twice weekly rapid antigen testing for most kids in schools and of course that's five times a week for children who are at higher risk in special school settings. So testing, unfortunately, is going the become at least for the first month quite common for a lot of children in the school environment, you know, testing at home before they come to school, so I think we need to do a lot of reassurance around that as well.

Q: How do you talk to children about the pandemic, about COVID, without, you know, raising their anxiety levels?

A: Yeah, this has been a challenge for the last two years, hasn't it, with children and it's quite amazing to think now that we are entering the third year of the pandemic.The most important thing is to understandwhere the child is developmentally and then pitch the conversation appropriately depending on their age. But the key is to just sit down with the child, have an honest conversation, ask what the questions they have are (we know all kids will have questions),what they might be concerned about, and then really start the conversation from there.

We need to let them know, a bit like last term, school is going to look different. We know that kids are going to be asked to wear masks. I mean, here in Victoria, they are mandatory for grade 3 and above and prep to grade 2 obviously it's recommended. So children will be wearing masks. They'll be aware of the changes to the air filters in the classroom. They may even be having some outdoor learning lessons,we have seen the shade cloths and the sales installed in many schools here in Victoria. The school environment will look different so preparing kids for that is really important.

And also again talking them through the rapid antigen testing to demystify that, helping them practice with cotton buds, showing what it might be like to do it on another adult or themselves before to do the test. It's all about giving them a sense of control and you do that by explaining to them what to expect so that they're not frightened or caught off-guard.

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COVID live updates: Get up to speed on all the coronavirus news from across Australia - ABC News