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Study suggests nearly half kids with covid-19 often have no symptoms

August 17, 2021 at 12:02 a.m. EDT

Nearly half of children infected with covid-19 have no symptoms, according to a review of data from more than 350 studies published through April 2021. Roughly one-third of people with covid-19 have no symptoms, according to the data review. Asymptomatic infections were more common in children than in the elderly or in people without preexisting medical conditions, said Pratha Sah of Yale School of Public Health, who led the analysis published last week in PNAS. Her team estimated that 46.7 percent of infected children have no symptoms.

The number of asymptomatic children “is especially concerning because settings with close, extensive contact among large groups of younger individuals are particularly susceptible to superspreader events of COVID-19, which may go undetected” if school authorities only watch for symptoms, Sah said. Senior author Alison Galvani, also of the Yale School of Public Health, said that asymptomatic individuals can still pass the virus to others, which makes mask-wearing important as schools reopen.

— Reuters