Few cases of coronavirus in children

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Very few children are being diagnosed with the coronavirus (COVID-19 ) globally, according to NBC News.

COVID-19 is estimated to have sickened more than 90,000 people around the globe and has taken the lives of about 3,000 people.

Of those numbers, however, very few children are being diagnosed, and those who are, only have mild cases, reported NBC News.

Children are said to make up just 2.4 percent of all reported cases of COVID-19. From those numbers, 2.5 percent experienced severe symptoms, and 0.2 percent became critically ill. By far there have been no reported deaths in younger children.

Reports say COVID-19 not hitting children is a relief and a mystery to pediatric infectious disease experts. As they do have working theories but no concrete answers as to why exactly.

The report states:

The answer may lie in the difference between children's and adult's immune systems, said Dr. Vanessa Raabe, an assistant professor in pediatric and adult infectious diseases at NYU Langone.

As people age, their immune systems weaken, she said, potentially making it harder for them to fight off illnesses.

"We've seen similar patterns for other diseases — chickenpox, for example. Adults who get it tend to get much more severe cases than children," she said.

"Kids with this novel coronavirus, maybe they are responding like they would any other coronavirus, where they get a little runny nose, a little cough, or very mild symptoms, because they have seen coronavirus before, and maybe that provides them a little more protection," he said.

Even though the virus seems to not affect children, experts still warn that premature infants and children with underlying chronic health conditions should still be considered high-risk for developing complications.

As testing becomes available in the country, more cases of children with COVID-19 are more likely to be detected.