Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make free COVID-19 antibody tests available to all school children to establish whether or not they have been infected with COVID-19; and what assessment they have made as to whether children who have been infected with COVID-19 should also be vaccinated against it.

The second Office for National Statistics-led Schools Infection Survey has recently launched to determine the number of pupils who have developed antibodies against the virus and how the level of antibodies changes during an academic year. The information collected will inform policies to protect school children and staff. The Home Antibody Testing Service and Post Positive PCR Antibody Testing Initiative are available to those aged 18 years old or over. The Service is exploring whether home-based antibody testing may be used for testing in those aged under 18 years old and will only offer testing if it is safe and practical to do so.

Vaccination is important for children even in cases of previous COVID-19 infection as any immunity as a result wanes over time. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that young people aged 16 to 17 years old who are not in an at-risk group and individuals aged 12 to 17 years old in clinical at-risk groups should be offered two doses. Vaccination of healthy 12 to 15 year olds began on 20 September. In children at low risk, the JCVI currently recommends deferral of vaccination for 12 weeks after onset of confirmed COVID-19 infection or of a positive sample. Natural infection is likely to provide protection against severe disease in younger people without clinical risk factors that would last for at least three months.