Hundreds of people are getting infected with COVID-19 daily along with reopened economies and lockdown measures relaxed. Though most of the people among the infected are young and older adults, many of the new graphs point to the fact that pediatric COVID-19 is increasing day-by-day. COVID-19  can be infected to children of all ages. Children tend to be affected less frequently than adults, particularly those younger than 12 to 14 years of age. Children usually account for up to 13 percent of laboratory-confirmed cases with surveillance from different countries.

How are children affected?

Most cases of pediatric COVID-19 resulted from household exposure in case series early in the pandemic, typically with an adult as the index patient. These results must be viewed with caution because cases have been found after strict physical distance interventions (e.g. school closure) have been introduced, restricting children’s exposure to near connections outside their household. Slowly as lockdown measures began to relax, it was found out that SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents was associated with close interaction with people with COVID-19 (typically a family member), getting home visitors, and attending meetings with people outside the household (e.g. social events, activities with other children)

Outbreaks related to health care and cases of potential transmission from teachers or school staff to students and between students in the school environment have also been identified. Inconsistent mask use at school was correlated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in a case-control study, although school-attendance itself was not.

Should children attend schools?

The heated debate on whether children should attend school in-person depends heavily on whether the academic and developmental damages associated with the lack of face-to-face teaching outweigh the possible spread of COVID-19 within schools themselves and in neighboring communities and vice versa. A systematic study released last month indicated that schools do not contribute to the spread of the community as long as there are low levels of COVID-19 infection in the surrounding areas, although its results were complex and included several constraints.

It is time to take care of your kids with extra precautions, now more than ever. Keeping an eye on your health, urging them to wear masks all the time while they are out playing.  Parents with their children should watch out for respiratory difficulties or extremely high fevers when it comes to the virus, and first, call your pediatrician for advice on the next move. If things are getting worse, come to the hospital.