UK Government Dashboard
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
At Long Covid Kids we believe that all children should be able to thrive and look forward to a positive future. This is why our Charity represents and supports children and young people living with Long Covid, related illnesses and the parents and caregivers who look after them.
Why analyse child-specific Covid-19 data?
From as early as January 2020 the UK was reassured that children didn't catch Covid-19, they didn't appear to transmit it and they certainly didn't become ill or die. This false narrative is now embedded into the heart of communities, research has been slow and the myth that children are unharmed by infection continues along with handwashing being the best defence.
After listening to families early on in 2020 Long Covid Kids founders began looking at the data published on the government dashboard. By removing adults from child data they could analyse the effect of the pandemic specifically on and between children. The fallacy of relative privation asserts that if something is worse than the problem currently being discussed, then the problem being discussed isn't really of importance at all. Comparing adult with child data has led to this. The harm caused to under 18's from Covid-19 infection has largely been brushed aside due to the greater burden of illness seen in 18 through to elderly adults with any reference to child harm usually branded 'scaremongering'.
Fundamentally, children's bodies are all about growth, and they don't usually get ill or die. Children are not small adults.
Two years on we are now a Charity. Our mission is awareness, support, research and action. By removing over 18's data from that provided by the Government Dashboard, The UK Health Security Agency and The Office for National Statistics we ensure that we ‘see’ children. We look into child-specific official data, evidence the impact of Covid-19 infection on the child population and present charts to illustrate the data.
Do children transmit Covid-19?
"With high heterogeneity (99%) children can transmit #SARSCoV2 just like adults"
Chair of British Paediatric Surveillance Unit, January 14th 2022
Can Children Be Reinfected Multiple Times?
Yes, they can. There is currently no mechanism to separately analyse reinfections versus original infections by age but UKHSA is considering adding this feature. Most parents are aware of a child who has been infected two or more times. Sadly we have children in our Support Group living with Long Covid who have tested positive up to three times.
Wales was the first to add reinfections to their data
England reinfections were added on 31st Jan 2022
N Ireland reinfections were added on 17th Feb 2022
Scotland reinfections were added on 1st March 2022
It’s also worth noting UKHSA only considers possible reinfections 90 days after the previous positive Covid test. Anecdotally Omicron, for example, can cause reinfection sooner - but UKHSA doesn’t count those. Reinfection rates vary somewhat but Omicron is causing around 10% of all cases to be reinfections.
This graph shows us the percentage of possible Covid-19 reinfections experienced in different age groups in England only as at 25th January 2022.
What Do We Know About Child Covid-19 Hospital Admissions?
"NHS England conducted a very rapid evaluation of around 50 admissions of babies with Omicron across around 33 hospitals. For context, we were hospitalising 500+ under 5's per week with Covid-19 during the Omicron peak in January, and the latest data shows another wave may be arriving with 56 hospitalised on the 6th March alone.
Are these youngsters being infected by their school-aged siblings?"
James Neill, LCK Data Analyst
Research published July 2021 shows that a quarter of children experienced persistent symptoms months after hospitalisation with acute Covid-19 infection, with almost one in ten experiencing multi-system involvement. Older age and allergic diseases were associated with a higher risk of persistent symptoms at follow-up.
Child Covid-19 hospital admissions exclude RSV which uses a separate test. Official data shows us that child Covid-19 hospital admissions are currently higher than RSV (3 March 2022)
Government research shows us that 80% of admissions in the first two waves of the pandemic, including the Alpha variant, were directly due to Covid-19 and 60% of those have no underlying conditions
As of 14th January 2022, the New York State analysis of Omicron stated that 53% of child hospital admissions list Covid-19 as the primary reason. For all admissions in England, NHS currently reports that 45% are primarily due to Covid-19. There is no separate % for children as yet.
Is The Omicron Variant More Harmful To Children?
There was more than double the rate of child Covid-19 hospital admissions in the Omicron peak than in former waves and sadly more children continue to be hospitalised and in higher numbers than prior to the arrival of the Omicron variant. During its peak in January 2022, 8.5% of all Covid-19 hospital admissions were children.
Presently 5.2% of all Covid-19 hospital admissions are children (UKHSA England, average for the 7 days to 2nd March 2022),
There were 372 child Covid-19 hospital admissions in the week to 2nd March 2022 (UKHSA, England)
There is no official information available regarding the discharge outcomes for any of these hospitalised children. We, therefore, do not know how many went on to receive care under a GP or paediatrician, or for how long.
What Are Underlying Conditions?
We often hear data reported with a caveat that children had “underlying conditions”.
But what constitutes an underlying condition? It is important to note that the ‘pre-existing conditions’ category includes chronic conditions that would rarely cause death on their own, such as;
Any mental health diagnosis
Common conditions that can range from trivial to severely life-limiting
An ‘other’ label which appears to be any condition (e.g. eczema)
For context, UK data shows us that:
1 in 11 children is living with asthma. The UK has one of the highest prevalence, emergency admission and death rates for childhood asthma in Europe
36 000 children are living with diabetes
1 in 100 children have been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder
20% of children are living with eczema
What Do We Know About PIMs Hospital Admissions?
PIMS hospital admissions are in addition to child COVID-19 admissions
PIMs typically appears 4-6 weeks after infection
These children are therefore usually admitted to the hospital after the 14-day testing cut-off period.
Long Covid Kids have been highlighting in official meetings that non-hospitalised presentations consistent with PIMs have been seen in their Support Group since 2020.
Paediatric Deaths
Fake News: “Only 6 healthy children” have died from Covid-19. A fact check explainer is published in the BMJ
An article led by Dr Tom Lawton looks at this issue in detail, with input from three of our own Long Covid Kids experts, Dr Deepti Gurdasani, Dr Stephen Griffin and LCK Data Analyst, James Neill.
56% of paediatric deaths since "Freedom Day' (ONS, England & Wales)
139 England paediatric deaths following a positive Covid-19 test (UKHSA, 28 days, 0-19 years) as of 3rd March 2022
1 in 18 deaths of 5-19 year-olds involved Covid-19 (ONS, England & Wales) Sept 2021-Jan 2022
Covid-19 is a significant cause of death for 5-19 year-olds in 2021 (ONS)
76% of child deaths aged 0-19 in wave 3 had CV19 as the underlying cause of death, (not due to pre-existing conditions. ONS)
For context, an average of 18.3 children per year die from flu (ONS Nomis age 0-19 to 2020). We vaccinate children against flu.
How common is Long Covid in Children?
Sadly there has been well documented and consistent misrepresentation of child Long Covid data and research findings both in research articles and in mainstream media since early on in the pandemic. Often lowest prevalence figures are published with misleading headlines despite experts raising concern about the methodology gaps used in the research. Subsequently, Long Covid is the legacy of this novel neurotropic virus.
Fact: Prevalence estimates vary. This is because different studies use different methods.
For example:
● Researchers differ in their choice of symptoms to study
● Different studies look at a varied number of symptoms
● The symptom duration often differs
● How a case is determined can differ
● Calculations can be based on all children infected or all children in the population
● Definitions of relapsing and remitting symptoms vary
● Use of a control group and how robust the control group is can differ
Fact: Current estimates for Long Covid in Children range between 1 and 51%. Findings from the world’s largest study on Long Covid in children report a 14% prevalence.
There is now a World Health Organisation agreed definition for Long Covid in adults and a definition for the purposes of conducting research on Long Covid in Children.
Fact: Until we have a worldwide agreed definition for paediatric Long Covid and formally count prevalence, the scale of the burden will remain unclear. As of 7th March 2022 there isn't one.
"If we take the lowest estimate for Long Covid of just 1%,
at least 5, 320 children in the UK in January 2022 alone will suffer persisting symptoms. The mechanism of what is causing them and their long term consequences remain unclear"
Long Covid Kids, 26th January 2022
"I challenge those who rubbish self-reporting of Long Covid. I say, there's no better way in the absence of a valid and reliable biomarker or specific imaging finding.
As a general rule, believe what people tell you about the difference in their own bodies before and after infection"
Long Covid Kids Champion, Dr Nisreen Alwan
The Office For National Statistics Long Covid Data
In the UK we are lucky in that we benefit from the robust and world-renowned ONS prevalence estimates (ONS, 3 March 2022) which currently indicate that 119,000 children and young people are living with Long Covid; 21,000 of whom are still experiencing symptoms after 12 months. It is pertinent to note that anecdotal evidence in our Support Group also indicates symptom duration is continuing from first-wave infections to date. We are not yet seeing the impact of Omicron in this data. The data lags. We will see February's data in the next release due 7th April 2022
A summary graph of the long term symptom data published by the Office for National Statistics since data collection began in February 2021.
This graph shows the number of children complaining of ongoing symptoms since their Covid-19 infection split into two age ranges and length of time (12 months, 3 months, any duration more than 4 weeks).
Useful Blogs
Long Covid issues around control selection by Dr Nisreen Alwan
Myth busting natural immunity from infection by Dr Deepti Gurdasani
Recent Long Covid Research Explained, 15th January 2022 by Dr Deepti Gurdasani
This version replaces the emailed draft 9.3.22. Minor changes and graphic additions only.
Our Charity Provides Facts
Sources and Contact Details
Admissions
Cases
Deaths
Data Analysis, graphs and statistics
Compiled by LCK Founding Member Nathalie Pearson
Long Covid Kids & Friends is a UK based international charity (Charity Number: 1196170) whose vision is to achieve support, recognition and recovery for Long Covid and related illnesses in children and young people. Their story began with a short film on the long-lasting symptoms of Covid in children.
Each week they produce a round-up of statistics and publish them. Read previous newsletters and sign up here
Long Covid Kids & Friends is run by volunteers. Your donation and social media shares enable us to support families worldwide.