Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists and health authorities have often observed that children do not appear to contract and transmit the virus to the same extent as adults.

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While the mechanisms behind this reduced vulnerability have remained somewhat mysterious and speculative, new evidence from South Korea shows that the age of children is also a vital factor to consider, with a large study indicating that older children seem to spread coronavirus on par with adults, even if younger children do not.

A research team led by preventive medicine physician Young Joon Park from the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention examined South Korean contact tracing reports from when the first case of COVID-19 was identified in the country on January 20, up until March 27.