Preparedness and Response to Pediatric COVID-19 in European Emergency Departments: A Survey of the REPEM and PERUKI Networks

Strategic Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Serology Testing in a Low Prevalence Setting: The COVID-19 Contact (CoCo) Study in Healthcare Professionals

“…In this regard, our study addresses several central questions about SARS-CoV-2 transmission and serological monitoring which are relevant to regions around the globe. In areas with resource-limited healthcare infrastructure and/or infection control, the pandemic has overwhelmed HCP and healthcare systems much like the initial wave of infections in Wuhan or the Lombardy region [26,27]. However, other countries, such as Germany, were in the fortunate position of successfully flattening the exponential spread of the virus and were able to provide hospitals and care givers with appropriate PPE in a relatively timely fashion.…”

A Pediatric Strategy for the Next Phase of the SARS–CoV-2 Pandemic

“…Although the assumption that children have higher risks of contagion within close communities, such as schools, is well known among pediatricians, this is the first time in the recent history that this finding has been methodologically demonstrated. Although school closure aiming to reduce pediatric infectious disease burden is neither ethically feasible nor sustainable for families, the results from Angoulvant et al ( 9 ) and Bressan et al ( 3 ) provide unique evidence to implement new guidelines and new routines to provide child education at school. Currently, most classrooms are overcrowded with 20 or more students per class, and lunch is usually served in large common spaces where students from all the schools are collected to eat.…”

“…The SARS–CoV-2 pandemic has significantly altered health care systems with shortages of personal protective equipment (PPEs) ( 3 ), human resources, and bed capacity not only related to intensive care unit ones. Emergency departments and admission wards changed their assets, allowing dedicated flows for high-risk and low-risk COVID-19 patients ( 11 ).…”

“…Although a more serious condition involving children has been recently described, the pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally related with COVID-19 (PIMS-TS), this is a rare post–COVID-19 complication and in a minority of cases leads to death ( 2 ). As a likely result of parents' fear of going to hospital, the impact of lockdown, and reduced circulation of infectious diseases, the number of sick children presenting to hospital has dropped significantly, and most pediatric wards have been relatively empty ( 3 ). Although we do not know yet if there will be a second wave of COVID-19 in the next months, it is likely the pediatric practice will not be as unscathed as during the first wave of COVID-19.…”

“…Therefore, while the first wave relatively spared all services that see children, the next autumn/winter will be extremely difficult to be managed from a logistic and clinical point of view. Timely preparedness is needed to be ready to face this new scenario unlike for the initial pandemic ( 3 ). In particular, pediatricians and policymakers should focus on prevention of communicable diseases in children and reorganization of pediatric care, improving the logistic of inpatient and outpatients services, the appropriateness of access to outpatient and inpatient settings, the interaction between families and general practitioners and between GPs and hospitalists, and the role of telemedicine.…”