Comparison of Clinic and Demographic Characteristics of Children with Laboratory-Confirmed and Suspected COVID-19 who Admitted to Pediatric Emergency Clinic

Objective: To determine the frequency of COVID-19 infection in children and to compare the parameters of laboratory-confirmed and suspected cases. Methods: Medical records collected with a prospective design of 1300 pediatric patients who applied to COVID-19 triage of pediatric emergency service. Clinic and demographic characteristics of children with laboratory-confirmed and suspected COVID-19 were compared.Nasopharyngeal swab sample was taken from all pediatric patients in accordance with the possible case definition determined by the national Ministry of Health. Results: The COVID-19 test was found positive in 94 (7.2%) children. Of those, 34.5% children had a history of contact, and 31.9% of all cases were asymptomatic. The mean age of children who were positive for COVID-19 was higher than those who were negative (p