Publisher Health

The risk of “long Covid” in children is much lower than many had feared, leading child-health experts have said.

After the world’s biggest study into the issue, the researchers, led by the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said they were “reassured”.

They surveyed every 11- to 17-year-old testing positive for coronavirus in England between September and March.

And their research suggests somewhere between 1.7% and 14% still had symptoms caused by Covid-19 15 weeks later.

The researchers said it was important those with persistent symptoms, which included headaches, tiredness and breathing difficulties, received support.

But there was little evidence huge numbers had sought NHS help for symptoms that had left them bedridden or unable to attend school.

The study also surveyed young people who had never tested positive.

And 53% of them had at least one symptom after 15 weeks, simply because they are common in the general population.

But among those who had tested positive, this proportion was 65%.

And 30% had three or more symptoms, compared with 16% of those who had never tested positive, suggesting 32,000 of the nearly 235,000 positive cases had developed long Covid.

But only 13% of those 235,000 had responded to the survey – and if all those with long Covid were among those who did so, that would suggest their actual number was just 4,000.

The research team – including Prof Sir Terence Stephenson, from the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health infectious-disease lead Dr Liz Whittaker, and Public Health England officials – will continue to follow the children in the coming months.

But Sir Terence said he was already “reassured” suggestions, at the height of the pandemic, half of children could develop long Covid cases were wrong.

Although, the numbers were still “not trivial” and the issue needed to be taken seriously.

Most likely to report persistent symptoms were older girls who already had poorer physical and mental heal

Those struggling emotionally and mentally could be more attuned to even minor physical illnesses, the researchers said, and a positive coronavirus test could help trigger that.

Of all the children in the study, 40% reported feeling sad, worried or unhappy.

And the researchers said it was clear the pandemic had had a damaging effect on young people because of:

This showed how important it was to get “back to normal” and have schools open, Dr Whittaker added.