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Background: In Oman, many extended families tend to live in one household. Some families can include 20–30 individuals with the majority of them being children. This study investigates the role of children in spreading SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19 within family clusters in Oman. Methods: This retrospective study includes data of 1026 SARS-CoV-2 positive children (≤18 years) collected from the national surveillance database for COVID-19 between 1 February 2020 and 30 May 2020. Results: We included 1026 patients. Most, 842 were Omani (82%), 52% male, and 28.5% asymptomatic. Close to the half of symptomatic 419 (40%), patients presented with fever associated with other respiratory symptoms. Fifty pediatric patients were index cases who transmitted the virus to 107 patients in total (86 adults and 21 children) with a mode of 1. There is no statistical significance of all studied risk factors in the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus including age, gender, and cycle threshold (CT) value. Conclusions: According to this study, children are not to be considered a significant driver of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Oman.

Background: COVID-19’s emergence carries with it many uncertainties and challenges, including strategies to manage the epidemic. Oman has implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. However, responses to NPIs may be different across different populations within a country with a large number of migrants, such as Oman. This study investigated the different responses to NPIs, and assessed the use of the time-varying reproduction number (Rt) to monitor them. Methods: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 data for Oman, from February 24 to June 3, 2020, were used alongside demographic and epidemiological information. Data were arranged into pairs of infector–infectee, and two main libraries of R software were used to estimate reproductive number (Rt). Rt was calculated for both Omanis and non-Omanis. Findings: A total of 13,538 cases were included, 44.9% of which were Omanis. Among all these cases we identified 2769 infector–infectee pairs for calculating Rt. There was a sharp drop in Rt from 3.7 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.8–4.6) in mid-March to 1.4 (95% CI 1.2–1.7) in late March in response to NPIs. Rt then decreased further to 1.2 (95% CI 1.1–1.3) in late April after which it rose, corresponding to the easing of NPIs. Comparing the two groups, the response to major public health controls was more evident in Omanis in reducing Rt to 1.09 (95% CI 0.84–1.3) by the end of March. Interpretation: Use of real-time estimation of Rt allowed us to follow the effects of NPIs. The migrant population responded differently than the Omani population.