Ten key points about COVID‐19 in children: the shadows on the wall

Escosa‐García, Luis; Aguilera‐Alonso, David; Calvo, Cristina; Mellado, María José; Baquero‐Artigao, Fernando

The pandemic of the new coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), initially described in China, is challenging the healthcare systems of all countries. Every emerging disease raises many questions with a scarcity of answers since all its characteristics are still being discovered. In the case of SARS‐CoV‐2, most of the literature comes from adult patients. Children seem to be less affected. Pediatric patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 disease usually suffer a mild illness, with low risk of complications or mortality. Defining the role of children in the transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 is critical as some national infection control decisions involving children, such as school closures or social distancing, will probably impact the dynamics of the virus. To aid in the knowledge on COVID‐19 in children, this work presents an expert review of the literature published from January 1 to April 20, 2020, including peer‐reviewed and pre‐print non‐peer‐reviewed studies, along with some relevant articles afterwards, summarizing ten key points that characterize the disease in children. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.