Dr Archana Koirala, Staff Specialist at NCIRS, has been honoured at the Sax Institute's annual Research Action Awards for her work in understanding COVID-19 in the Australian paediatric population.
Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Koirala led a team of researchers to track and understand SARS-CoV-2 transmission within schools and early learning centres. Working with researchers from NCIRS, NSW Health and NSW Department of Education, Dr Koirala and her colleagues found that transmission rates in educational settings were much lower than in others such as households and recreational facilities.
Her research also showed that children were not the key drivers of transmission and were less likely to be affected by severe COVID-19.
Watch Dr Koirala discuss her work below:
This work provided critical real-time data to policy makers and empowered them to keep schools open during times of COVID-19 community transmission, reinforcing the use of mitigation measures and vaccination to limit the spread of COVID-19.
