Epidemiology, Clinical Features, and Disease Severity in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a Children’s Hospital in New York City, New York

Abstract

Community transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is now widespread in the US, with New York City (NYC), New York, continuing to be the epicenter.¹ Detailed reports of clinical features among hospitalized adults in the US are increasingly available.^2,3 International pediatric data suggest lower rates of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children⁴ and higher rates of asymptomatic infection.^5,6 Risk factors for severe disease in pediatric populations have not been clearly identified and the high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in NYC offers an opportunity to describe severe pediatric disease in more detail. Being younger than 1 year has been suggested as a predisposing factor for hospitalization in initial reports, including from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).^5,7,8 Detailed descriptions of the clinical course, laboratory parameters, and findings associated with severe disease in children and adolescents could help inform clinical practice and infection prevention and control (IPC) preparedness at children’s hospitals. In this article, we present the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of 50 pediatric patients admitted with COVID-19 to our children’s hospital from March 1 to April 15, 2020.