1 / 14Children who develop symptoms of covid-19 typically get better after six days, with just about 4.4% having symptoms which last beyond four weeks, found a UK study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal on Tuesday.2 / 14The findings may ease India’s concern about the third wave of the pandemic having a severe impact on children.3 / 14The study, based on data reported through a smartphone app by parents and carers, provides the first detailed description of covid-19 illness in symptomatic school-aged children.4 / 14“It is reassuring that the number of children experiencing long-lasting symptoms of covid-19 symptoms is low. 5 / 14 Nevertheless, a small number of children do experience long illness with covid-19, and our study validates the experiences of these children and their families,'6 / 14Professor Emma Duncan, lead and senior author of the study, from King’s College London, UK, said.7 / 14Some adults experience a prolonged illness after covid-19, described as 'long-covid', where symptoms persist for four weeks or longer, but it is not known whether children can develop a similar condition or how common this is.8 / 14 Many children infected with the SARS-CoV2 virus do not develop symptoms, but those who do tend to, have a mild illness.9 / 14In the study, the researchers used data collected through the ZOE COVID Study smartphone app, which includes data from more than 250,000 children the UK, aged five to 17 years.10 / 14Symptoms were reported through the app by their parents or carers, rather than assessed directly in children, and the team did not collect data regarding school attendance.11 / 14The team focused on reports collected between 1 September 2020 and 22 February 202112 / 14Some 1,734 children developed symptoms of covid-19 and received a positive PCR test result close to the onset of symptoms, with their symptoms reported regularly until they were healthy again.13 / 14This meant the researchers could accurately attribute these children’s symptoms to covid-19 and could assess illness duration robustly.14 / 14Overall, these children were ill for an average of six days and experienced an average of three symptoms in the first week of illness, confirming that COVID-19 tends to manifest as a mild illness in children and that they usually recover quickly. Most children recovered within four weeks, with a minority experiencing symptoms after a month (4.4%, 77/1,734). Typically, they had only two symptoms remaining after four weeks. The commonest symptom experienced by children with long illness duration was fatigue. About 84% (65/77) of children reported fatigue at some point in their illness, and this was the most persistent symptom.