Medpage Today Small study finds no difference in infectiousness by vaccination status with Omicron variant.
Children infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 appear to be infectious for about 3 days after a positive test, researchers found.
In a small study of 76 kids ages 7 to 18, the median duration of infectivity was 3 days for both vaccinated and unvaccinated children, Neeraj Sood, PhD, of the University of Southern California, and colleagues reported online in a JAMA Pediatrics research letter.
“The vast majority of children who get COVID are symptomatic for 1 to 3 days,” co-author Eran Bendavid, MD, MS, of Stanford University, told MedPage Today. “Basically that correlates with how long the virus is causing disease in their body.”
The authors noted the results are consistent with a study in adults with the Omicron variant, which found no association between vaccination status and infectivity duration.
In that study, which was published as correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicine, adults had a slightly longer median duration of infectivity at about 5 daysopens in a new tab or window, the authors noted.