Epidemiological and clinical features of pediatric COVID-19

COVID-19 is an extremely severe infectious disease. However, few studies have focused on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of pediatric COVID-19. This study conducted a retrospective review of the epidemiological and clinical features of COVID-19 in children.

A retrospective study was conducted on children with a definite diagnosis of COVID-19 in mainland China using the web crawler technique to collect anonymous COVID-19 updates published by local health authorities.

Three hundred forty-one children aged 4 days to 14 years with a median age of 7 years were included. Sixty-six percent of pediatric patients were infected via family members with COVID-19. The median incubation period was 9 days (interquartile range, 6 to 13). Asymptomatic cases accounted for 5.9%, of which 30% had abnormal chest radiologic findings. A majority of pediatric COVID-19 cases showed mild to moderate clinical features, and only a few developed severe or critical diseases (0.6% and 0.3%, respectively). Fever (77.9%) and cough (32.4%) were the predominant presenting symptoms of pediatric COVID-19. The pediatric patients had fewer underlying diseases and complications than adults. The treatment modalities for pediatric COVID-19 patients were not as complex as those of adult COVID-19 patients. The overall prognosis of pediatric COVID-19 was benign with a decent recovery. The median time from onset to cure was 16 days (interquartile range, 13 to 21).

Compared to adults, COVID-19 in children has distinct features of epidemiology and clinical manifestations. The findings from this study might help to guide the development of measures to prevent and treat this ongoing global pandemic.

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (chictr.​org.​cn) identifier: ChiCTR2000030464.