Children are low-risk spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, say paediatricians
Victorian health authorities, however, say there’s growing evidence of child-to-child transmission
Children are typically the last in households to develop COVID-19, suggesting they can be infected but are rarely an index case for an outbreak, researchers say.
A Swiss study of the country’s first 40 children under 16 years known to be infected with COVID-19 has found 80% were from families with at least one other person infected with the virus.
However, in only 8% of households were the children the first to develop symptoms, the researchers wrote in Pediatrics.
An accompanying commentary by paediatricians at the University of Vermont, US, said the results suggested “children most frequently acquire COVID-19 from adults, rather than transmitting it to them”.
