Children with cancer don’t need to delay treatment over concern about becoming vulnerable to COVID-19, suggests a small study from New York.

After testing 120 asymptomatic paediatric oncology patients for infection with COVID-19, researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre found just 2.5% were positive for the virus, as compared to 15% of the children’s asymptomatic caregivers.

Among the 58 children who had been exposed to the virus or had shown symptoms suggestive of infection, 17 (29%) tested positive with only one requiring noncritical care for COVID-19 symptoms, the authors report in JAMA Oncology.

Initially, the clinicians tested only children who were displaying COVID-19 symptoms and the ones who had come into contact with someone known to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. As time passed, the researchers started testing all paediatric cancer patients, as well as their caregivers.