As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide many people have wondered whether warmer weather will slow it down. That’s because the flu is transmitted much more easily in winters, dry and cold conditions with cases dropping when humidity levels rise in spring and summer. Yet, it is not the same as the flu and the susceptible pool of people who can be infected is much larger. So seasonality won’t have as much of an impact until more people develop immunity to it. For now, physical distancing will have a much more efficient impact on slowing the virus.
Doctors in the UK have reported a serious new coronavirus-related condition emerging in children, with growing numbers now requiring intensive care.
An “urgent alert” sent out to general practitioners in London in the last three weeks warns of “an apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multisystem inflammatory state requiring intensive care” according to a report by the Health Service Journal.
The alert warned that “there is a growing concern that a [COVID-19] related inflammatory syndrome is emerging in children in the UK, or that there may be another, as yet unidentified, infectious pathogen associated with these cases.”
A separate alert, sent out by the Paediatric Intensive Care Society, urges doctors to “please refer children presenting with these symptoms as a matter of urgency,” according to the HSJ.
The condition has been found both among children who have tested positive for the coronavirus and those that have not.
The symptoms of the condition are “toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki Disease with blood parameters consistent with severe COVID-19 in children,” as well as “Abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms” and “cardiac inflammation.”
