Kids and the coronavirus: Just how vulnerable are babies and children to COVID-19?

Up until now, data on how the novel coronavirus outbreak impacts children has been scarce, but a new study from China reveals that while COVID-19 is gentler on kids, it still poses a great risk to infants, younger children and kids with underlying health issues.

Medical researchers in Shanghai examined the symptoms and transmission patterns of COVID-19 among nearly 2,200 pediatric patients between the ages of 2 and 13. The study found that children under 18 are vulnerable to COVID-19, although over 90 percent of cases diagnosed were asymptomatic, mild or moderate, not severe or critical, according to the study published in the American Academy of Pediatrics.

About half of the children had mild symptoms including fever, fatigue, cough, congestion and possible nausea or diarrhea, the study says. Nearly 40 percent of infected kids became moderately ill, with symptoms like pneumonia or lung problems revealed by CT scans, with no obvious shortness of breath, while about 4 percent had no symptoms at all, according to the study.

Less than 6 percent of the cases studied, or 125 patients, developed very serious illness, with 13 of those cases teetering on the brink of respiratory or organ failure, compared to more than 18 percent of adults infected with COVID-19 in China, the study says.

Researchers are still trying to figure out why the effects of coronavirus are comparatively less severe for children than for adults, the study says. But one child, a 14-year-old from the Chinese province of Wuhan, died from the disease, according to the study.

More than 60 percent of the 125 children who became severely or critically ill were age 5 or younger, and 40 of those patients were infants under 12 months old, the study found, suggesting that COVID-19 poses a greater risk to younger children.

The study also provided strong evidence that human-to-human transmission plays a major role in the spread of COVID-19, bolstering educators’ decisions in the U.S. and around the world to close schools in response to the pandemic.

The study’s findings correlate with symptoms reported in children in the U.S., where doctors say they’ve seen mild symptoms in kids like a fever and a dry cough. Parents are encouraged to seek medical attention if they notice their kids are having a hard time breathing — wheezing, persistent coughing, breathlessness or difficulty talking, Janet Englund, a professor of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Washington, told Vox News.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends parents tell kids to wash their hands with soap and water or use sanitizer, avoid people who show signs of illness like coughing or sneezing, clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces in common household areas and wash items like toys in the warmest water possible and dry them completely to keep your child from contracting and spreading COVID-19.

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 11:29 AM.