The overall risk of youngsters becoming severely ill or dying from Covid is extremely low, a replacement analysis of Covid infection data confirms.
Data from the primary 12 months of the pandemic in England shows 25 under-18s died from Covid.
Those living with multiple chronic illnesses and neuro-disabilities were most in danger , though the general risk remained low.
The conclusions are being considered by the UK’s vaccine advisory group.
Currently, under-18s aren’t routinely offered Covid vaccines, albeit they need other underlying health conditions that put them in danger .
Covid in children graphic
Scientists from University College London, and therefore the Universities of York, Bristol and Liverpool say their studies of youngsters are the foremost comprehensive yet anywhere within the world.
They checked England’s public health data and located most of the children who had died of Covid-19 had underlying health conditions:
Around 15 had life-limiting or underlying conditions, including 13 living with complex neuro-disabilities
Six had no underlying conditions recorded within the last five years – though researchers caution some illnesses may are missed
A further 36 children had a positive Covid test at the time of their death but died from other causes, the analysis suggests
Though the general risks were still low, children and children who died were more likely to be over the age of 10 and of Black and Asian ethnicity.
Researchers estimate that 25 deaths during a population of some 12 million children in England gives a broad, overall death rate of two per million children.
Current data shows some 128,301 people within the UK have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test since the pandemic started.
‘Hospital stays rare’
Separately, scientists considered all children and children in England who had an emergency hospital admission for Covid up to February 2021:
- Some 5,800 children were admitted with the virus, compared to about 367,600 admitted for other emergencies (excluding injuries)
- About 250 required medical care
- There were 690 children admitted for a rare inflammatory condition linked to Covid, called paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS-TS)
Though absolutely the risks were still small, children living with multiple conditions, those that were obese, and children with heart and neurological illnesses were most in danger
Lead researcher Prof Russell Viner said complex decisions around vaccinating and shielding children required input from many sources – not their work alone.
But he said if there have been adequate vaccines, their research suggested certain groups of youngsters may benefit from receiving Covid jabs.
He added: “I think from our data, and in my entirely personal opinion, it might be very reasonable to vaccinate variety of groups we’ve studied, who do not have a very high risk of death, but we do know that their risk of getting severe illness and coming to medical care , while still low, is above the overall population.”
He said further vaccine data – expected imminently from other countries, including the US and Israel – should be taken under consideration when making the choice .
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Dr Elizabeth Whittaker, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Imperial College London, said it had been encouraging they were seeing only a few seriously unwell children in hospital.
She added: “Although this data covers up to February 2021, this hasn’t changed recently with the Delta variant. We hope this data is going to be reassuring for youngsters and children and their families.”