Clinical Characteristics of 34 Children with Coronavirus Disease-2019 in the West of China: a Multiple-center Case Series

Che Zhang; Jiaowei Gu; Quanjing Chen; Na Deng; Jingfeng Li; Li Huang; Xihui Zhou

Our findings in paediatric patients indicated several features distinguished from adult patients, concerning epidemiological data, characteristics, initial symptoms, laboratory tests, and CT findings. In respect to exposure history, up to 72.30% of non-residents of Wuhan had contact with residents of Wuhan [1] . Thus, close contact with residents of Wuhan was indicated as a high risk factor for transmission in adult patients. However, a considerable proportion of patients (47.60%) were noticed without any exposure history in our study. The unanticipated finding suggested the referential value of exposure history for diagnosis of COVID-19 should be considered carefully for paediatric patients. In addition, family cluster transmission was common in paediatric patients. Close dynamic monitoring for families with adult patients would contribute to early identification for paediatric patients. In accordance with the features of indirect contact exposure, the incubation period was 10.50 (7.75 -25.25) days in paediatric patients, while 4.00 (2.00 -7.00) days of incubation was revealed for patients in all age groups [1] . The epidemiological features of paediatric patients indicated dynamic observation was necessary for suspected cases in children due to extended incubation period.