Infants, children and adolescents are equally capable of carrying and spreading high levels of live, replicating COVID-19. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and urgent care clinics, studied 110 children aged two weeks to 21 years who tested positive for COVID-19. They then showed that these high levels of virus correspond with live, infectious virus, and that levels are highest early in the illness in both symptomatic and asymptomatic children.
The viral loads of kids in the hospital were no different from those found in hospitalized adults. The high viral loads are infectious. Children can carry the virus and infect other people. Most children are asymptomatic or only mildly symptomatic when they develop COVID-19, allowing them to stay under the radar as spreaders of the disease. Who would ever suspect that cute little punum? children are reservoirs for the evolution of new variants as well as spreaders of current variants.
Every year, children are a major driver of transmission for the viruses that cause the flu and the common cold. So why would the deadly COVID virus be any different? The study concluded that masking is important for children as well as adults. COVID is not a benign disease in children. It has become the eighth most common cause of death among children in the United States.