Coronavirus: With schools reopening, how to spot COVID signs in kids

Schools are reopening soon for kids. The joy of going back to school, sitting on desks, facing the blackboard and having lots of gossip with friends is immeasurable. But at the same time, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic due to which schools have remained closed since 2020, parents and guardians should take care of important things like COVID safety and symptoms.

For children who are too young to be vaccinated, it is very important to understand the COVID symptoms in them. Parents should make sure that their kids follow all safety rules while going to school; both indoors and outdoors. The risk of contracting the infection indoors is more than it is outdoors and since children spend most of the time inside classrooms parents should be more focused on masking, distancing, handwashing and ventilation of classrooms.

Kids are likely to contract the infection as adults but the severity of the illness is less in them. "SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents cause less severe illness and fewer deaths compared to adults," says the World Health Organisation (WHO). "Younger children, school children and adolescents usually have fewer and milder symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 than adults and are less likely than adults to experience severe COVID-19," it says in a report.

Many health experts have also said that children are least likely to be affected by COVID. "It is well documented that children are less commonly affected with this infection and the majority of them are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.

A small proportion (<10%- 20%) of symptomatic children may need hospitalization and 1% to 3% of symptomatic children may have severe illness requiring intensive care admission," a state government report says on the occurrence of COVID in kids.

The WHO says children get milder symptoms of COVID than adults.

As per health experts at Mayo Clinic, fever, cough, chest pain, loss of taste and smell, discoloration on skin, sore throat, nausea, chills, muscle aches, extreme fatigue, headache, and nasal congestion are some of the common COVID symptoms seen in kids. The experts say COVID symptoms in kids appear on average about 6 days after exposure to the virus.

These symptoms overlap with the symptoms exhibited during common cold or flu. Therefore parents should not ignore the symptoms and take help from experts as soon as possible.

Whenever COVID in kids is in discussion, MIS comes to the fore. While this is a serious health condition which can occur in kids during COVID, its occurrence is minimal, experts say.

MIS is characterised by fever, rash or bilateral non-purulent conjunctivitis or muco-cutaneous inflammation signs (oral, hands or feet), hypotension or shock, features of myocardial dysfunction, pericarditis, valvulitis, or coronary abnormalities, acute gastrointestinal problems like diarrhoea, vomiting, or abdominal pain.

When the child has difficulty breathing or catching his or her breath, is unable to keep down any liquids, has confusion or is unable to awaken and has bluish lips, it is essential to take medical help immediately.

Experts at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say kids who are less than 2 years old, who were born prematurely and those living with obesity or chronic lung disease are at higher risk of getting severe symptoms of the disease.

Children with asthma also have a greater risk of getting severe disease. "Children with asthma may have more severe symptoms from COVID-19 or any other respiratory disease, including the flu. There are no indications that most children with asthma experience severe symptoms due to the coronavirus, but observe them carefully and, if symptoms develop, call the child’s doctor to discuss next steps and to arrange appropriate evaluation as needed. Keep your child’s medications refilled and take extra care to avoid things that set off asthma attacks in your child," experts at John Hopkins Medicine have said.

Yes they can. Since it has been seen that many children were asymptomatic, this means that there is a possibility that they could be spreading the disease among populations just like any COVID asymptomatic adult.

COVID-19 outbreaks have been identified in schools, summer camps and day care centres, particularly when neither physical distancing nor masks were used to reduce risk. In Israel in May 2020 soon after schools were reopened it was seen that 153 students and 25 staff members were infected with COVID. Similar cases were reported from other countries where schools had opened after the first spell of the infection.