Investigating COVID-19 deaths for children and young people

A new study conducted in England shows that the risk of death due to COVID-19 remains very low for children and young people, and most deaths occur in those with underlying health conditions. Marta Bertran of the UK Health Security Agency, London, and colleagues present these findings on November 8th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine. Pediatric deaths due to COVID-19 are rare, and because infection tends to be mild in children and young people compared to adults, it can be challenging to assess COVID-19 severity and cause of death for those with serious underlying health conditions. In addition, because death due to COVID-19 is so uncommon for children, limited data exist to examine such fatalities at the population level. To improve our understanding of pediatric COVID-19 deaths—and which factors might be linked to an increased risk of death—Bertran and colleagues analyzed detailed data on everyone aged less than 20 years...