The Swiss government has said that children under the age of 10 do not transmit coronavirus, and therefore grandparents can hug their young grandchildren.
But when asked about the news this morning, Professor John Newton, who is leading the UK’s testing effort, said that “there’s a lot of uncertainty” on the subject, adding the question was one for Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty.
“One of the challenges we have is that coronavirus is a new infection and people are discovering things about it all the time. There’s a lot of uncertainty,” he said.
Daniel Koch, head of the Swiss health ministry’s infectious disease group, said that “young children are not infected and do not transmit the virus”, adding that “they just don’t have the receptors to catch the disease”.
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The Swiss ruling says that contact between grandparents and their grandchildren should remain brief.
