Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy has confirmed there have been no reported cases of the childhood illness similar to Kawasaki disease that appears to be linked to COVID-19. 

Doctors in France, northern Italy, US, UK and Spain, where the pandemic has hit hardest, have reported spikes in cases of the rare inflammatory syndrome in young children.

Paediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome (PMIS-TS), potentially associated with COVID-19, shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, including fever, rashes, swollen glands and, in severe cases, heart inflammation.

“We report a high number of Kawasaki-like disease cases in the Bergamo province (of Italy) following the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, with a monthly incidence that is at least 30 times greater than the monthly incidence of the previous five years,” doctors wrote in The Lancet.