Most New York City kids ‘probably already have coronavirus and are spreading it’, doctor warns – The Sun

MOST children in New York City likely already have the coronavirus and are asymptomatic carriers who spread the infection, a city pediatrician says.

Parents in New York should assume their children have the bug if they show mild symptoms consistent with the virus, according to Dr. Dyan Hes, who founded Gramercy Pediatrics.

"I think that probably 80 percent of the children have coronavirus," Dr. Hes told CBS News during an interview on Tuesday.

"We are not testing children. I'm in New York City. I can't get my patients tested.

"And we have to assume, if they are sick, they have coronavirus. Most of them, probably 80 to 90 percent of them are asymptomatic."

It's hard to tell the exact number of infected kids since so many of them show no symptoms, which could skew the city's coronavirus mortality rate, she said.

Dr. Hes believes the 0.5 per cent mortality rate for children is "way, way less" because the virus is so prevalent.

"You have to remember thousands of kids die from flu a year," she said.

"This is much, much less virulent in children."

The risk lies in those infected kids passing the virus to vulnerable populations like the elderly or people with pre-existing health conditions.

Since public schools were closed after the outbreak was in full swing, she worries that city kids were transmitters to their teachers.

"Our biggest mistake was that we didn't close the public schools when we should have," she said.

"So the children were vectors to the teachers, who might be elderly or immunocompromised."

Dr. Hes is advising parents to take their kids to the doctor only for scheduled vaccine visits or if they're experiencing shortness of breath – a killer symptom associated with the virus.

Dr. Hes is advising parents to take their kids to the doctor only for scheduled vaccine visits or if they're experiencing shortness of breath – a killer symptom associated with the virus.

Children above the age of two should be wearing masks, she added.

Kids rarely become severely ill from COVID-19, and may not even show signs like a fever or a cough, according to an April 6 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They make up a small fraction of US coronavirus cases – as of April 2, children accounted for less than two per cent of cases nationwide.

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