Children may be less affected than adults by novel coronavirus (COVID‐19)

COVID‐19 is a new strain of coronavirus that has infected people from many countries around the world. Initial reports suggest that children are relatively spared by this virus in comparison to adults. The February 2020 World Health Organization‐China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease1 found that only 2.4% of cases were in those less than 19 years of age. Furthermore, disease severity was less in infected children compared to the total infected population; only 2.5% of children developed severe disease (compared to 13.8% overall) and 0.2% of children developed critical disease (compared to 6.1% overall). Severe disease was defined as dyspnoea, tachypnoea, hypoxia or infiltrates affecting >50% of the lung fields within 48 h, and critical disease was defined as respiratory failure, septic shock and/or multi‐organ failure. Although reported case numbers are quite small, young infants seem to have relatively low rates of being severely affected; one study of nine infected infants found none required intensive care or had significant complications.2 Despite this, certain paediatric populations, such as extremely prematurely born babies, are likely to be particularly vulnerable, with one death confirmed in this subgroup.3 Further evidence is likely to emerge with time on just how children as a cohort globally will fare with this epidemic illness.