Long Covid Affects Few Kids But Curbs Impact All, Study Finds

  • Chances of children experiencing lasting symptoms seen as low
  • Largest long-Covid study in kids is considered ‘reassuring’

A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 test to a child at a drive-thru vaccination and testing site in Austin, Texas.

Photographer: Matthew Busch/Bloomberg
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The largest study of long Covid in children found kids can experience symptoms persisting at least two months, but researchers say the indirect effects of the pandemic probably carry a more lasting impact.

Children who test positive for Covid are more likely to experience at least one long-lasting symptom than children who have never been diagnosed, according to findings published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. But the study results can be seen as “reassuring,” Maren Rytter of the University of Copenhagen wrote in comments accompanying the data.