In Hong Kong, several health warned of new clinical symptoms of COVID-19 among children, such as hoarseness and inspiratory stridor (a sign of airway obstruction) during the fifth wave. Dr. Chuang Shuk-Kwan, director of the Communicable Diseases Division of the Center for Health Protection of the HKSAR Government’s Department of Health, stated that they have found some infected children have developed croup, which indicates an inflammation of the larynx, windpipe, and bronchial tubes.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mike Kwan Yat-wah, the consultant at the department of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Princess Margaret Hospital, added that the clinical symptoms among children during the fifth wave driven by the Omicron variant differ from the symptoms that were observed in the previous covid waves.  He further explained that inspiratory stridor can also be caused by various infectious agents, such as the parainfluenza virus.  However, in the recent COVID pandemic, this condition was nearly all caused by the Omicron variant. According to Kwan, 19% of the children who had contracted and recovered from the Covid 19 infection present at least one of the long covid symptoms in the outpatient follow-up at his hospital – Princess Margaret Hospital with the most common complaints being memory loss, cognitive deficits, insomnia, headaches, and discomfort.

At present, there are two confirmed cases in children who have been newly classified as "serious" and are being treated in the children’s ICU at Princess Margaret Hospital. According to Dr. Chuang, infections with Omicron variants are still on the rise, with the proportion of new cases infected with BA.4 (or BA.5) in Hong Kong rising to 48.6%, while BA.2.12.1 accounted for 7.6% of the cases.

(Source: https://theprint.in/world/new-symptoms-found-in-covid-infected-children-raise-concerns-in-hong-kong/1105706/ )