Currently very few children with COVID-19 at Evelina London

Evelina London is not seeing large numbers of children or young people in our hospital with COVID-19.

We know that you may be worried about COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus), and the potential impact on children and young people. Evelina London Medical Director, Sara Hanna, is reassuring families about the situation in our hospital:

“Our large children's hospital located in South East London covering the south east region, is not seeing large numbers of children or young people in our hospital with COVID-19. We want to reassure families that may have seen media reporting which implied this was the case.

“We are currently seeing very few children with COVID-19 infection in our hospital, and so far this winter appears to be one of the quietest for any form of respiratory illness in children. These levels are currently lower than our experience of previous winters.

“All patients with known or suspected COVID-19 are being treated as per Public Health England instructions on isolation and infection prevention and control. Our experienced teams are well prepared for this.

“Because we have fewer children and young people in our hospital at the moment, we have been able to offer some of our staff and space to support adult services at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals.

“We are still here for you, and it is safe to visit us if you need urgent care at our Emergency Department, or if you have been invited for an appointment or procedure. It is important to still get the care your child needs during this time. We have extra measures in place to make sure you and our staff are safe when you come in.”

Our specialist children’s hospital Evelina London played an important role over the course of last year in caring for a small number of children with a condition called Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (called PIMS-TS or PIMS for short). This is a condition thought to be triggered by COVID-19 infection sometime after the infection has passed.

PIMS-TS is incredibly rare and these cases came to Evelina London because we are a regional children’s hospital serving a large population. We know more about the condition now than when it first appeared and can detect it early and treat it successfully.

Concerned parents or carers should seek medical help if their child becomes ill by:

1. contacting NHS 111 or your family doctor for urgent advice
2. dialling 999 in an emergency.

If a professional tells you to go to hospital, please follow their advice, and remember that our emergency department is always open for those who need it and is safe to come to. Please read our guidance (PDF 163Kb) with further advice on attending our emergency department.

We continue to keep the number of people visiting our hospital to a minimum to make sure we can do our best to stay safe by keeping apart. It is important that everyone who visits our hospital or community sites follows our infection control measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

You can find out more about COVID-19 in children on the NHS website.