Children are silent spreaders of Covid-19: study

WASHINGTON: New research shows that children may play a larger role in the community spread of Covid-19 than previously thought.

According to the study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, children who had Covid-19 were shown to have a significantly higher level of virus in their airways than adults who were hospitalized for Covid-19 treatment, foreign media reported.

"I was surprised by the high levels of virus we found in children of all ages, especially in the first two days of infection," said lead author, Lael Yonker.

"I was not expecting the viral load to be so high. You think of a hospital, and of all of the precautions taken to treat severely ill adults, but the viral loads of these hospitalized patients are significantly lower than a 'healthy child' who is walking around with a high SARS-CoV-2 viral load."

The study, conducted by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Mass General Hospital for Children, looked at 192 children ages 0-22, of which 49 tested positive for Covid-19, and another 18 children had late-onset Covid-19-related illness. The study found that while younger children are less likely to become infected or seriously ill from the virus, their viral load didn't decrease.