How coronavirus affects children: Expert provides the facts

The Australian Academy of Science has released a video explaining why so few children are contracting coronavirus.

Earlier this month Australia's chief medical officer Dr Brendan Murphy said one of the surprising features about coronavirus was how few children seemed to have been identified among the confirmed cases.

"It's very unusual compared to influenza," he said.

"We don't know whether children might be getting the disease but (their symptoms) are so mild they are not being picked up, or they're not becoming sick, or whether they are somehow less susceptible."

Now the University of Sydney's Professor Robert Booy has weighed in too and answered some other commonly asked questions.

Why are few children contracting Covid-19?

Like Murphy, Booy said children might not be getting symptoms.

"My suspicion is that they're actually catching it, but they're dealing with it so well, they're having such a mild reaction that it looks as though they've got only a mild cold or no symptoms at all," he said.

Do children have better immunity than adults?

Booy said children's immune systems were quite different to adults.

"We've been taught through many other pandemics and many other viral infections that when children get a viral infection for the first time, they really can get it quite mildly," he said.

"The same virus that's very mild in a child really can be quite severe in an adult and our immune systems change as we mature."

Can children be hosts and spread the virus?

Booy said children could catch the infection and they could be a host.

"It's people who cough and splutter and sneeze, especially young children who have poor personal hygiene, respiratory hygiene, they can transmit infection," he said.

"But milder cases in older children who can wash their hands are unlikely to be major sources of transmission.

"Certainly they could pass it to someone in their family but I don't see them as super transmitters."

Can babies contract Covid-19?

Booy said babies could and had been infected with Covid-19.

"The few reports we have so far suggest they get a mild infection," he said.

"New mums should just do all the sensible things.

"They don't need to make any particular precautions because if you're hand washing regularly, if you're paying attention to not exposing your baby to other people and keeping them at home for the first few weeks and months, just do the normal thing."

Why is there a 14-day quarantine period?

Booy said within 14 days is usually when people presented symptoms.

"People who are put into self-quarantine at home, they only have to stay there for 14 days while we're checking whether they're about to develop Covid-19," he said.

"Within 14 days we know if you haven't got symptoms, you haven't caught the virus."

Can Covid-19 be contracted by animals?

According to Booy, domestic animals aren't a worry.

"For dogs and cats and other domestic animals, there's really no evidence at all to suggest the coronavirus that we get will transmit to them or it will transmit from them to us neither," he said.

This article was first published on news.com.au.