Brazilian children’s return to school troubled by the Omicron wave

The daily tally of new Covid infections has never been higher and deaths caused by the coronavirus have crossed the 1,000-per-day mark for the first time since August 2021. To make matters worse, the rollout of vaccines for children has begun at a slow pace, with an estimated coverage rate of only 10 percent among those aged 5 to 11.

According to São Paulo’s Butantan Biological Institute, over 1,400 children aged up to 11 have died of Covid, the second leading cause of death in that age group. Health officials have also reported roughly 2,400 cases of pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

“We are in the most acute wave of [Covid] transmission, and the return to school will certainly fuel an even more violent outbreak,” said Dr. Gonzalo Vecina — one of the founders of Brazil’s federal health regulatory agency, Anvisa — in a recent interview.

Yet, despite all the risks involved in putting dozens of children within the same space, there is a perception in the country that keeping students at home may be even more harmful to them after two years of...