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The vast majority of children have mild to no symptoms of the coronavirus
Parents need to be “reassured” Covid-19 has not caused the deaths of otherwise healthy schoolchildren in the UK, researchers say.
Child risk of hospital treatment required for coronavirus is “small” and critical care “even tighter,” they say.
However, black children, those who are obese and very young babies have a slightly higher risk.
The BMJ study looked at 651 children with coronavirus in hospitals in England, Wales and Scotland.
It accounts for two-thirds of all child admissions in the UK due to Covid-19 between January and July and confirms what is already known about the minimal effects of the virus on children.
A “remarkably low” 1% of these 651 children and adolescents – a total of six – had died in hospital with Covid-19 compared to 27% in all other age groups, the study found.
Only 18% needed intensive care.
And the six who died had “deep” underlying health conditions that were often complex and even life-threatening.
Children with such conditions remained vulnerable to the virus and should take precautionary measures, the researchers said.
But for others, the risk was extremely low.
“There have been no deaths in otherwise healthy school-age children,” said study author Prof Calum Semple, of the University of Liverpool.
“There is no immediate harm from children going back to school,” he added.
Co-author Dr Olivia Swann, of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, said she hoped the findings would be “extremely reassuring to parents across the UK”.
The most common symptoms in children admitted to the hospital were fever, cough, nausea or vomiting and shortness of breath.
Older children were more likely to have stomach pains, headaches and a sore throat.
Of the 651 children in the study, 42% had underlying health care – the most common diseases were affecting the brain and nervous system (11%), cancer (8%) and asthma (7%).
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One in 10 children in hospital with coronavirus was diagnosed with a rare inflammatory syndrome
But having asthma – unlike obesity – did not make children more likely to need intensive care.
Of the 651 children, 52 were also diagnosed with a multi-system inflammatory syndrome linked to coronavirus, with the first case doctors saw in mid-March.
These 52 – none of whom died – were more likely than the others older, about 10, and of ethnic minorities.
And they were five times more likely to be admitted to intensive care, where they responded well to treatment.
‘Higher incidence’
Based on their study, the definition of this syndrome could now be broadened to include symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, sore throats and muscle aches, the researchers said, on top of the symptoms already mentioned by the World Health Organization.
Dr Liz Whittaker, of the Imperial College London, said the findings echo other studies of Covid-19 in children.
“Very low numbers of children are admitted to critical care and the researchers reported a very low mortality rate – especially compared to adults, but also compared to the mortality rate due to other infections, flu, smallpox, meningitis, group A strep.[tococcus] sepsis et cetera, and other causes of infant mortality – for example, traffic accidents), “she said.
The fact that black children were more often affected by the very rare inflammatory syndrome “reflects the higher incidence of coronavirus infection in these communities,” Dr. Whittaker added.
