A large study of children and young people who caught SARS-CoV-2 has found that as many as one in seven (14%) may still have symptoms 15 weeks later.1 However, this figure is lower than in some studies that have reported a prevalence of long covid as high as 51% in children and young people.

Speaking at a Science Media Centre briefing, the study’s lead author, Terence Stephenson, who is Nuffield professor of child health at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in London, said, “It is reassuring that the figures were lower than the worst case scenarios predicted last December. However, they are not of trivial importance.”