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Observational Study
. 2022 Jan;33 Suppl 27(Suppl 27):93-95.
doi: 10.1111/pai.13642.

SARS-CoV-2 infections in pediatric patients: A comparison of three pandemic waves

Francesca Rovida  1 , Federica Giardina  1 , Guglielmo Ferrari  1 , Stefania Paolucci  1 , Antonio Piralla  1 , Fausto Baldanti  1   2
Affiliations
Observational Study

SARS-CoV-2 infections in pediatric patients: A comparison of three pandemic waves

Francesca Rovida et al. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

The pediatric population seems to be at a lower risk of developing severe clinical symptoms of COVID-19. However, the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in children are yet to be fully clarified. This retrospective observational study aimed to evaluate the frequency of pediatric laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients from February 2020 to April 2021. A total of 740 (5.1% of total) pediatric COVID-19 cases were observed during the study period. The peak of pediatric cases was observed in November 2020, with 239 cases. During the first wave of pandemics, the frequency of pediatric cases was 0.89% (49/5877 cases), ranging from 0.6% in February 2020 to 1.3% in April 2020. On the contrary, after the beginning of the second wave, the frequency of pediatric cases raised from 5.3% in September 2020 to 9.4%in February 2021, with an overall frequency of 8.2% (690/8416 cases). A different rate of SARS-CoV-2 circulation was observed among the pediatric population between the pandemic waves. During the second wave, two peaks of cases were observed. The last peak was associated with the spread of a more transmissive SARS-CoV-2 strain (VOC 202012/01).

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; epidemiology; pandemic; pediatric infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The number of COVID‐19 cases according to age category between February 2020 and April 2021 (A). The number of pediatric cases (<15 years) is reported near the peak for each month. Frequency of SARS‐CoV‐2 cases detection according to age category (B). The percentage of pediatric cases (<15 years) is reported within the bars for each month
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