The novel coronavirus appears to be less serious in children, according to a small analysis of COVID-19 infections in China.

The virus also appears in faecal samples long after nose and throat swabs show no evidence of the infection, the authors from Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Centre write in Nature Medicine.

The findings, based on data from 10 children, suggest how difficult it can be to detect the virus based on symptoms alone, they add.

The researchers carried out tests in the 10 children because they were family members of COVID-19 patients, or had had close contact with people diagnosed with the disease, not because care had been sought for them.