Children Don’t Pass Covid-19 to Adults, Report Indicates

There doesn’t appear to be cases of a child passing Covid-19 to an adult, according to a new report.

Andrew Davis

30 Apr 2020, 08:43 PM IST

Children Don’t Pass Covid-19 to Adults, Report Indicates

People wearing protective masks stand near a pedestrian crossing. (Photographer: Giulia Marchi/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) --

Children contract the coronavirus less often and with less severity than the general population, and there’s limited evidence so far that children pass the disease to others in significant numbers, according to a new report.

Many infected children may stay asymptomatic, but cases of them becoming critically ill with Covid-19 remain rare, according to an analysis of global virus studies compiled by the Don’t Forget the Bubbles pediatric blog.

Among the study’s findings are:

A China/World Health Organization joint commission couldn’t find a single case of a child passing the virus to an adult.
Low case rates among children may be due more to higher numbers remaining asymptomatic, rather than a lower infection rate.
Analysis of Chinese data in confirmed and suspected cases showed that 32% of affected children aged 6-10 years were asymptomatic.
Precise details regarding pediatric transmission remain unclear.
To date, only a handful of coronavirus deaths have been reported in children.
Very few newborns or infants contract Covid-19 and generally they do well in overcoming the virus.