Proof pupils are safe being back at school

CORONAVIRUS does not kill healthy children and they face only a ‘tiny’ risk of severe illness, according to the world’s largest study into the issue.

Experts said death was ‘vanishingly rare’ among children and teenagers, and that going to school posed ‘no risk at all’ for most youngsters.

The research looked at data from 70,000 patients with Covid-19 admitted to NHS hospitals, finding that less than 1 per cent were aged 19 or under.

Six of the 651 children in hospital with coronavirus died – all of whom had existing and life-limiting health conditions.

The authors said the ‘extremely reassuring’ findings meant parents should have ‘absolute confidence’ that it was safe for children to be back at school.

Study author Calum Semple, professor in child health at the University of Liverpool, said: ‘Severe disease is rare, death is vanishingly rare.

‘Parents should be confident children are not going to be in direct harm by going into school. We do know that they are at harm by being kept away from school.’

Nearly one in five children admitted to hospital with the virus needed critical care, the study found. But the authors said the overall risk of children being admitted to hospital was ‘tiny’, the risk of needing critical care was ‘even tinier’, and the death rate was ‘staggeringly low’.

Yesterday, the World Health Organisation said getting children back to school was one of its top priorities.

The UK study, published in the British Medical Journal, was based on data from patients admitted to 13 hospitals between March and July. Four in ten of the 651 children in the study had another medical condition. The figure of 1 per cent of patients under-20 who died is far lower that the adult death rate of 27 per cent.

Lead author Dr Olivia Swann, clinical lecturer in paediatric infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh, said the six who died already had comorbidity – the term for having more than one illness.

She added: ‘Each of those six children has a profound underlying comorbidity, which meant that the Covid-19 infection was not the only reason for their death.’

She said black children were nearly three times as likely to be admitted to intensive care. Children who were under one month, aged ten to 14, or were obese also faced a higher risk.

Dr Liz Whittaker, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: ‘The study is reassuring.

‘Very low numbers of children have been admitted to critical care and the researchers reported a very low death rate.’