SARS-CoV-2 trends in Italy, Germany and Portugal and school opening during the period of Omicron variant dominance ; A quasi experimental study in the EuCARE project

Funding Information: This research received contributions from the EuCARE Project funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No 101046016. Funding Information: This research received contributions from the EuCARE Project funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No 101046016. Federica Bellerba is a PhD student at the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM), Milan, Italy. We would like to sincerely thank Maria Pia Fabiani for checking and proofreading the English language of the manuscript, contributing to its overall quality and readability. We thank Iuri Fanti for his contribution to the data management of the EuCARE school studies. We also wish to extend our gratitude to Maurizio Rainisio for his invaluable methodological input and insightful points of reflection that have significantly enhanced the quality of this study. FB, FI and SG contributed to the conceptualisation of the study. FB and SG contributed to the data analysis, interpretation of the results, writing, and reviewing of the manuscript. ODE, SR, ET, and FI contributed to the interpretation of the results, writing, and reviewing of the manuscript. NB, MB, MSM, IMA, DA, AA, and RK contributed to data collection, supervision, and reviewing of the manuscript. ES and NP contributed to the interpretation of the results and reviewing of the methodology and the manuscript. FI contributed to the funding acquisition. VG, EG, GV, and CM contributed to the data management, supervision, and reviewing of the manuscript. FI and CM contributed to the project administration. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors ; Objectives: We investigated the impact of school reopening on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Italy, Germany, and Portugal in autumn 2022 when the Omicron variant was prevalent. Methods: A prospective international study was conducted using the case reproduction number (Rc) calculated with the time parametrization of Omicron. For Germany ...