COVID-19 in Children: An Epidemiology Study from China

Of the 125 severe and critical cases, 40 (32%) were less than 12 months of age and 36 (28.8%) were less than 5 years (see Table I). [...]60% of the total severe and critical cases were in children less than 5. The study supports other recent findings about the mild nature of disease in children, as recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data show that only 5.7% of pediatric patients were hospitalized compared with 10% of adults aged 18 to 64.2,3,5 Similarly, in another study of 6 COVID-19 hospitalized patients between 1 and 7 years old, all recovered after median hospitalization stay of 7.5 days, with only 1 child admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit.4 Interestingly, cough and pharyngitis were the most common symptoms in these patients. There are a few limitations of this study; for example, testing was confirmed using pharyngeal, nasal, blood, or respiratory tract samples; anal swabs were not obtained, though viral fecal shedding has also been reported.7,8 The testing methods used confirmed that children may be asymptomatic carriers of the virus, though it was unclear if these asymptomatic children were identified because of history of exposure, or residence in the Hubei province through universal screening processes.