%A Bassal, Ravit %A Indenbaum, Victoria %A Mendelson, Ella %A Lustig, Yaniv %A Keinan-Boker, Lital %D 2022 %T The age groups more affected by SARS-CoV-2 in children and the role of schools in the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel - January 2020-March 2021 %K %X We analyzed data from a serological study performed on 2,765 samples from the Israeli National Sera Bank (INSB), established in 1997 in the Israel Center for Disease Control (ICDC) collected from children aged 0-<16 years during January 2020-March 2021. Trends in seropositivity rates to SARS-CoV-2 were evaluated using Joinpoint within specific age groups and compared to educational institutions activity. Seropositivity rates increased significantly in the 0-<6 and 12-<16 years age groups and were parallel in the 0-<6 years age group and partially parallel in the 12-<16 years to educational institutions activities. Non-significant increase in seropositivity rates were observed in the age groups 6-<10 and 10-<12 years. Apparently, exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in children was driven not only by educational activities but also by other factors. %U https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/2706 %J Medical Research Archives %0 Journal Article %R 10.18103/mra.v10i3.2706 %V 10 %N 3 %@ 2375-1924 %8 2022-03-31