The third wave of the COVID-19 is largely speculated to hit the children and since the vaccination hasn’t started on full scale, making the younger ones extremely vulnerable. However, newly conducted studies and research now state that even though if children get infected with the virus, they are most likely to recover within a week and the percentage of those who suffer from ‘long covid’ is comparatively lower.

According to a study in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, less than 1 in 20 children with COVID-19 have symptoms lasting longer than 4 weeks, and by 8 weeks, almost all have recovered.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal, wanted to understand how Covid affected children and how it compared to other respiratory diseases.

It used data provided by parents or carers to the UK Zoe Covid Study app.

The study looked at 1,734 children, aged between 5-17, who were reported to have developed symptoms and tested positive for Covid between September 2020 and February 2021.

The researchers say it is very difficult to know how many children were infected during this time period as the four UK nation record data differently, but they estimate more than 400,000 children and young people tested positive.

 Fewer than one in 20 (4%) were found to have experienced symptoms for four weeks or more, with one in 50 (2%) having symptoms for more than eight weeks.

The most common symptoms reported were headaches and tiredness. Others included a sore throat and loss of smell.

On average, older children were typically ill for slightly longer than primary school children, with those aged between 12 and 17 taking a week to recover while for younger children the illness lasted five days.

Senior author Emma Duncan, PhD, in King’s College London, said in a press release, “We know from other studies that many children who catch coronavirus don’t show any symptoms at all; and it will be reassuring for families to know that those children who do fall ill with COVID-19 are unlikely to suffer prolonged effects.”

She added, “However, our research confirms that a small number do have a long illness duration with COVID-19, though these children too usually recover with time.”

Most of the kids recovered within a month, around 4.4 per cent (77) of them experienced symptoms even after a month. The most common symptom that remained after four weeks was fatigue.

Out of the 77, 64 children reported suffering from fatigue at some point in their illness. Loss of smell and headache were also common. Headache was common during the starting of the infection, while loss of smell occurred later and persisted for a longer period.

Older children were typically ill for longer than primary school-aged children.

The team also assessed the children who tested negative for COVID-19 but may have other illnesses such as cold and flu. It was found that children with COVID-19 were ill for longer as compared to children with other illnesses who tested negative for the virus.

The data highlights that illnesses like cold and flu can also have prolonged symptoms in children and thus it’s important to be careful.