COVID‐19 in children: time for a new strategy

Abstract

The generally mild course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) in children, as observed during the early phase of the pandemic, may not continue to be typical as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV2) mutates. In this issue of the MJA, Ibrahim and colleagues1 describe the characteristics of children positive for SARSCoV2 who presented to 16 Australian hospitals during February – September 2020, when the Wuhan strain of the virus was circulating in Australia. Reassuringly, most of the 393 children did not need hospital care, and there were no deaths.1 However, 44 children were admitted to hospital (11%), including two who developed paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARSCoV2 (PIMSTS), and 17 were managed with hospital in the home care.1