Children one in 100 virus cases

CHILDREN under 16 accounted for less than one per cent of coronavirus cases during the first wave in England, research suggests.

Researchers said the study led by Public Health England confirmed that youngsters are not an important source of infection.

The study comes after weeks of debate over the dangers of allowing pupils to return to school.

It used data from more than 540,000 tests carried out by the NHS, PHE and GP surgeries monitoring flu-like illness. Around one in four people tested had the virus, but children made up only 1,408 of the 129,704 positive results.

The report said: “The experience in England adds to the growing body of evidence on the limited role of children in the Covid-19 pandemic, with just over one per cent of confirmed cases occurring in children.”

The first confirmed case of coronavirus in a child was on February 29. Cases rose from the second week of March and peaked on April 11, similar to the trend seen in adults. The most positive cases were among those under three months, but researchers said this just reflected a higher number of tests in that age bracket.

Study lead author Dr Shamez Ladhani said scientists do not fully understand why children have been largely spared by the virus.

One theory is that they have fewer ACE2 receptors which the virus can bind to in cells lining the respiratory tract.The findings were published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.