“The highest level message really has to be that (in children with Covid-19) severe disease is rare, and death is vanishingly rare - and that (parents) should be comforted that their children are not at direct harm by going back into school,” he told a briefing. Global data on the spread of the coronavirus pandemic shows that children and young people make up only 1-2% of cases of Covid-19 worldwide. For this study, published in the BMJ medical journal, Semple’s team looked at data from 651 babies and children under 19 who were hospitalised with Covid-19 between Jan. 17 and July 3. While the overall risk of children getting severe Covid is “tiny”, the researchers said, children of Black ethnicity and those with obesity are disproportionately affected, as previous studies in adults have found. The study also showed that children can have a cluster of symptoms including sore throat, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and rash alongside already-recognised Covid-19 symptoms of fever, breathlessness and cough.

Source: Hindustan Times August 28, 2020 09:02 UTC