Coronavirus: Children behind rising demand for tests in England - BBC News

Demand for coronavirus tests has almost trebled among young children in England this month - but only 1% were found to have the virus, figures show.

A large study review has also confirmed that children are less likely to be infected than adults.

But the role that children and adolescents play in transmitting the virus "remains unclear", it said.

This sharp rise in demand coincided with children returning to school in England.

But if children do become infected with the virus, they are at very low risk of becoming severely ill or dying from Covid-19.

Writing in JAMA Pediatrics, a UK-led research team found that children and adolescents under the age of 20 had 44% lower odds of being infected with Sars-CoV-2 - the scientific name given to the coronavirus - than adults over 20

But the researchers were not able to come to any conclusions on whether children were any less likely to pass on the virus than adults