A new study conducted in 22 South Korean hospitals has found that children who either never exhibited coronavirus symptoms or have ceased showing symptoms, remain infectious for up to three weeks after being cleared, according to MedicalXpress.
Of the 91 children who participated in the study, 22% didn't develop symptoms at all and 20% were initially asymptomatic, but later developed symptoms. The majority of the children, 58%, showed symptoms right from the start.
During the research, the children were tested every three days on average to monitoring their condition.
The results provide important information that can better inform health experts making policy decisions, as it sheds new light on how the virus behaves in young children.
About a fifth of the asymptomatic children and half of the symptomatic children were still infectious after three weeks, MedicalXpress reported.
Overall, the results showed that even if the child was not exhibiting symptoms, they could remain infectious for weeks.
Despite the newly gathered information, researchers were concerned about the reliability of current testing procedures, suggesting that being "positive" or "negative" does not reveal much about a patient's infectiousness. Another variable to consider is whether asymptomatic and symptomatic patients spread the same amount of the virus, which is still unknown, according to MedicalXpress.