Clinical characteristics and health outcomes for children hospitalized with COVID-19

Overview

Epidemiological studies consistently show that children make up only around 1–5% of all COVID-19 cases. Reports of COVID-19 outcomes in children and infants across different regions have been inconsistent.  Health resource disparities contribute to varying pediatric COVID-19 mortality rates between low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and high-income countries (HIC). To address these disparities, this report aims to pool data from diverse geographical settings using contributions from Member States, partners, and investigators in the WHO Global Clinical Platform.

This report describes clinical characteristics and outcomes among children hospitalized with COVID-19. The specific objectives of the analysis were to: Determine the risk factors for severe disease at hospital presentation with COVID-19 and in-hospital mortality:

• in children hospitalized with COVID-19;
• between children and adults to evaluate differences in outcome;
• between children living with HIV and HIV-negative children;
• and between children infected by different variants of concern (VOC).