Severe COVID-19 infection very rare in babies, study says

Scientists have assessed cases of COVID-19 in newborns across the UK, and found that nearly 90 per cent of them had fully recovered, and had been discharged from hospital, an advance which suggests that severe infection in babies is very rare.

The study, published in the journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, traced babies less than 29 days old with COVID-19 across the UK, who needed to be admitted into hospital between the beginning of March and end of April.

In the research, scientists, including those from the Imperial College London in the UK, found that 66 babies required hospital treatment for COVID-19 infection in this period -- equivalent of 1 in 1785 births, or 0.06 per cent of births.

The main symptoms of COVID-19 infection in the babies included high temperature, poor feeding, vomiting, a runny nose, cough and lethargy, the researchers said.

They added that nearly half of the babies who developed severe infection were from Black, Asian or minority ethnic groups, and around one in four of the babies were born prematurely.