MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Half of the children who have contracted the novel coronavirus have mild forms of the disease, while the severe form is registered only in 0.2% of cases, the deputy director for research at the Russian consumer rights watchdog's Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Alexander Gorelov, has said.
"Half of the patients have a mild form of the disease and one-third are asymptomatic, while only 0.2% of the children experience the severe form. Severe and moderate forms are found mostly in babies under 12 months of age. Children aged three and older have mostly mild and moderate forms," Gorelov said at an on-line meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Science Council entitled COVID-19: the Situation Today and Unresolved Problems.
Gorelov stressed that specialists had identified high-risk groups of children who are likely to suffer from the severe form of the coronavirus infection - babies under 12 months of age and children with background diseases. Most children taken to hospital with COVID-19 are above eight years of age.