Epidemiological characteristics of 2143 pediatric patients with 2019 coronavirus disease in China

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To identify the epidemiological characteristics and transmission patterns of pediatric patients with COVID-19 in China. METHODS: Nationwide case series of 2143 pediatric patients with COVID-19 reported to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention from January 16 to February 8, 2020 were included. The epidemic curves were constructed by key dates of disease onset and case diagnosis. Onset-to-diagnosis curves were constructed by fitting a log-normal distribution to data on both onset and diagnosis dates. RESULTS: There were 731 (34.1%) laboratory-confirmed cases and 1412 (65.9%) suspected cases. The median age of all patients was 7 years (interquartile range: 2-13), and 1213 cases (56.6%) were boys. Over 90% of all patients were asymptomatic, mild, or moderate cases. The median time from illness onset to diagnoses was 2 days (range: 0 to 42 days). There was a rapid increase of disease at the early stage of the epidemic and then there was a gradual and steady decrease. Disease rapidly spread from Hubei Province to surrounding provinces over time. More children were infected in Hubei province than any other province. CONCLUSIONS : Children at all ages appeared susceptible to COVID-19, and there was no significant gender difference. Although clinical manifestations of children’s COVID-19 cases were generally less severe than those of adults’ patients, young children, particularly infants, were vulnerable to infection. The distribution of children’s COVID-19 cases varied with time and space, and most of the cases concentrated in Hubei province and surrounding areas. Furthermore, this study provides strong evidence for human-to-human transmission.