According to a study published by Indian researchers in Medrxiv, the recent surge of COVID-19 instances in India, caused by the subvariant of Omicron XBB.1.16, has increased the risk of conjunctivitis among children under the age of one year.

The research, conducted by Dr. Vipin M. Vashishtha, a member of WHOs Vaccine Safety Net, is based on 25 children seen in the emergency department of a pediatric hospital in Uttar Pradesh between April 4 and April 16. He noted that the findings of the study pointed towards a higher involvement of young infants in comparison to older children.

He explained that one interesting finding was the presence of itchy, non-purulent conjunctivitis with mucoid discharge and stickiness of the eyelids in 42.8% of positive infants. The findings of the study showed that none of the patients needed to be hospitalized, as all of them recovered with symptomatic treatment.

On his Twitter handle, he noted that respiratory symptoms are predominant in young infants. He revealed that the youngest case was a 13-day-old newborn baby. He further added that infants under one year had a significantly higher positivity rate (40.38%) in comparison to older children (10.5%). 

(Source: https://telanganatoday.com/indian-study-shows-covid-xbb-1-16-raising-conjunctivitis-risk-in-infants )