COVID-19 Information
The best COVID-19 care is available at Texas Children’s.
COVID-19 has changed daily life for people worldwide. Texas Children’s is here to help.
What is COVID-19? What does it mean for children, women, and the immunocompromised?
COVID-19, also commonly known as COVID, is a disease caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2. Most people with COVID-19 have mild symptoms, but some people can become severely ill. Although most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions. Post-COVID conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience more than four weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Older people and those who have certain underlying medical conditions are more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19.
COVID-19 Variants
The virus that causes COVID-19 is constantly changing, and new variants of the virus are expected to occur. Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear. Other times, new variants persist. Numerous variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 are being tracked in the United States and globally during this pandemic.
The Delta variant is the current variant of most concern and the one that has caused the most hospitalizations in children and adults who are immunocompromised. The Delta variant causes more infections and spreads faster than earlier forms of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Featured Blog - The Delta variant: What parents need to know as children head back to school
As children across the country prepare to head back to school in the fall, concerns are rising about the Delta variant of COVID-19 and how to keep children safe from contracting it. Dr. Jim Versalovic, Texas Children’s Pathologist-in-Chief and Interim Pediatrician-in-Chief, answers some of the most commonly asked questions from parents.
Symptoms of COVID-19
If your child needs a COVID-19 test OR has any of the following symptoms:
- Fever
- Cough
- Cold/flu-like symptoms
- Chills
- Muscle pain
- Headache
- Loss of taste or smell
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Tiredness