In a recently released article in Pediatrics, Sisk et al reviewed public health data collected by individual states and territories to better quantify the percentage of pediatric COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from mid-April to mid-September for 2020 (10.1542/peds.2020-027425). Their findings show an overall increase in the number of cases from the spring to the fall, with children accounting for 3% of all cases in April and 15.9% of all cases in September. As previously suspected, the hospitalization and mortality rate in pediatric cases remained extraordinarily low during this time with children representing 1.7% and 0.07% of all cases, respectively.
I found this report very insightful because it sheds light on the current limitations for collecting and reporting pediatric COVID-19 data. While there are numerous COVID-19 tracking groups such as The New York Times, the John Hopkins Coronavirus Tracker, and The COVID Tracking Project, they have not routinely published pediatric specific data as individual states and territories have. Sisk et al suggests this has occurred at least in part as a result of less frequent pediatric testing and significant variability in reporting methods between local health departments.
As Drs. Cruz and Zeichnerl suggest in their accompanying commentary on this article, we need to standardize our reporting process across this country (10.1542/peds.2020-031682). For instance, variable definitions of “child” have led to mixed reporting, where some states consider “adults” to be over 18 years and others over 21 years of age. As another example, some states report all positive rapid antigen tests as true cases while others only acknowledge positive PCR tests. Perhaps most importantly, pediatric data in some states are not frequently disaggregated. Given that the presentation and transmission of COVID-19 varies by age, 1,2 review of data further separated into select age groups will augment our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and how it behaves in specific pediatric populations.
As we move forward into the next phase of this pandemic, it is crucial to develop a uniform practice for reporting on pediatric patients with COVID-19, so we may better care for these patients now and in the future.
References:
1. Park YJ, Choe YJ, Park O et al. Contact tracing during coronavirus disease outbreak, South Korea, 2020. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26(10). doi: 10.3201/eid2610.201315.
2. Davies NG, Klepac P, Liu Y, et al. Age-dependent effects in the transmission and control of COVID19 epidemics. Nature Med. 2020;26(8):1205-1211.
