For those interested in how COVID-19 has been affecting children, here are some statistics from the CDC.
As of April 6th, the CDC released data on how children in the U.S. have been affected. 1.7% of laboratory confirmed cases occurred in children under the age of 18 years. However, we must realize that given the screening recommendations, this percentage may be underestimated. Furthermore, the proportion of patients for which data like symptoms (9%), underlying conditions (13%), and hospitalization status (33%) was relatively low. 91% of children with known exposures were from the community or household.
The most common symptoms found were:
Fever, cough, OR shortness of breath (73% compared to 93% of adults)
56% had fever
54% had cough
13% had shortness of breath
Headache (28%), sore throat (24%), body aches (23%), diarrhea (13%), nausea/vomiting (11%) and runny nose (7%)
Demographic data:
Ages: of all reported cases
32% were aged 15-17 years
27% were aged 10-14 years
15% were aged 5-9 years
15% were aged <1 year
11% were aged 1-4 years
Of those for which data was known, 5.7-20% of kids were hospitalized. 0.58-2% were admitted to the intensive care unit
Children < 1-yr accounted for highest percentage of hospitalized patients
Underlying conditions:
23% had at least 1 underlying condition. The most common were:
Chronic lung disease (including asthma)
Cardiovascular disease
Immunosuppression