This study characterizes the demographic, epidemiologic, and clinical characteristics of hospitalized infants diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 infection between December 8, 2019, and February 6, 2020, in China. This study showed that infants can be infected by COVID-19, although the number of infections was small.

Previous studies suggest that COVID-19 is more likely to infect older adult men, particularly those with chronic comorbidities. This study identifies all infected infants in China and describes demographic, epidemiologic, and clinical features.

The authors identified all hospitalized infants aged 28 days to 1 year, diagnosed with COVID-19 infection between December 8, 2019, and February 6, 2020, in China. They identified 9 infected infants with the following characteristics:

All patients were hospitalized

• 7 were female
• The youngest was aged 1 month and the oldest was 11 months
• There were 2 patients from Beijing, 2 from Hainan, and 1 each from Guangdong, Anhui, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guizhou.
• 4 patients were reported to have fever, 2 had mild upper respiratory tract symptoms, and 2 had no information on symptoms available.
• 1 patient had no symptoms but tested positive for COVID-19 in a designated screening because of exposure to infected family members.
• The time between admission and diagnosis was 1 to 3 days.
• Families of all 9 infants had at least 1 infected family member, with the infant’s infection occurring after the family members’ infection.
• 7 infants were reported to be either living in Wuhan or having family members who visited Wuhan, 1 had no direct linkage to Wuhan, and 1 had no information available.
• None of the 9 infants required intensive care or mechanical ventilation or had any severe complications.