Children with COVID-19 tend to recover within a week, new study confirms

Good news.

A recent study has revealed that children recovering from Covid will most likely have little to no long term side effects from the illness. It also found that children who have contracted Covid generally recover within a week. The results were published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal and found that illness from Covid lasted no more than a week on average in children aged between five and 17. Out of the 1,734 children who had a clear start and end point to their symptoms only one in 50 (1.8 per cent) had symptoms lasting for more than eight weeks. Even fewer, 4.4 per cent, experienced symptoms for four weeks or more. In younger children the recovery time was even quicker with children aged five to 11 years old recovering from Covid on average in five days. Senior author Emma Duncan, professor of clinical endocrinology at King's College London, said:

"We know from other studies that many children who catch coronavirus don't show any symptoms at all and it will be reassuring for families to know that those children who do fall ill with Covid-19 are unlikely to suffer prolonged effects. However, our research confirms that a small number do have a long illness duration with Covid-19, though these children too usually recover with time. We hope our results will be useful for doctors, parents, and schools caring for these children - and, of course, affected children themselves."

  The study showed that the most common symptoms reported in children were headaches, tiredness, a sore throat and loss of smell. Researchers taking part in the study also investigated other similar ailments such as the common cold and seasonal flu and found that on average it takes children of the same age bracket as those studied three days to recover, slightly less than recovering from Covid.