2-year-old coronavirus patient discharged upon recovery

A 2-year-old boy who had contracted coronavirus infection was discharged upon recovery on Monday morning, said the Shanghai Health Commission.

The boy, who first went to a hospital with a cough, was diagnosed with coronavirus on February 25 and transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University for treatment.

According to a publication from the hospital on the clinical and epidemiological features of children with coronavirus, pediatric patients have a longer incubation period than adults and don’t require anti-viral medications or antibiotics if their condition is not serious.

The Children’s Hospital of Fudan University is the only designated hospital for children with coronavirus in Shanghai and it has disseminated its knowledge based on the cases it has received.

Dr Zeng Mei, director of the hospital’s infectious department, said child patients are usually mild and most develop illness after being exposed to adult patients. The average incubation period is 6.5 days, longer than 5.4 days among adults.

"There is no special medicine for coronavirus so far, so we just give medicines in line with each patients' condition," she said.

Zeng said that her team has studied not only cases reported in Shanghai but also pediatric cases reported elsewhere across China.