Background

COVID-19 is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that emerged from China in December 2019. The virus has spread around the world, causing a global pandemic.

Children and COVID-19

Overall children are at much reduced risk of serious illness and death compared to adults¹. They may also be less susceptible to disease overall, with between 1-10% of all COVID-19 positive cases in other countries being in children. However, it may be that some groups of children are likely to be at higher risk of severe illness e.g. malnourished children, immune suppressed and neonates.

The virus can spread through droplet, contact or airborne routes (when conducting an aerosol generating procedure).  Most children will become infected through a household member. They generally have mild disease, with a very low rate of hospitalization in high and low/middle income countries and they can be asymptomatic. It is important to have a low threshold for rapid isolation and assessment, and effective infection control measures to prevent spread, particularly to other patients and health care workers.