The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidance for pediatricians for COVID-19 therapy. It also includes what is known about the virus in children.

Recent evidence suggests that children likely have the same or higher viral loads in their nasopharynx compared with adults and that children can spread the virus effectively in households and camp settings," the guidance states.

Transmission of the virus to and among children may have been reduced in spring and early summer due to mitigation measures like stay-at-home orders and school closures, the CDC says.

'A recent systematic review estimated that 16% of children with SARS-CoV-2 infection are asymptomatic,16 but evidence suggests that as many as 45% of pediatric infections are asymptomatic.17 The signs and symptoms of COVID-19 in children are similar to other infections and noninfectious processes, including influenza, streptococcal pharyngitis, and allergic rhinitis. The lack of specificity of signs or symptoms and the significant proportion of asymptomatic infections make symptom-based screening for identification of SARS-CoV-2 in children particularly challenging", CDC states.

Read the updated CDC guidance HERE