Children aged 17 and younger are at low risk of getting severe health issues, according to an international study examining the risk factors for severe outcomes in children with COVID-19 in 10 countries. The observational study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open on Jan. 11, involved scientists who followed more than 10,300 pediatric patients at 41 emergency departments in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Singapore, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. Of the 10,382 patients, 3,221 tested positive for COVID-19 upon visiting the emergency department between March 7, 2020, to June 15, 2021. Among the COVID-19 positive children, 735 (22.8 percent) were hospitalized and of those, 107 (3.3 percent) experienced severe outcomes within 14 days. “Fortunately, the risk of developing severe disease in children with COVID-19 discharge from the emergency department is very low,” Dr. Todd Florin, a co-lead of the …