More research is needed into factors that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 disease among children and adolescents, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has said, adding that while children may have largely been spared many of the most severe effects, they have suffered in other ways. 

While children in every country have struggled with the impact of COVID-19 on their education, refugee children have been particularly disadvantaged, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said, amid fears many may not be able to resume their studies due to school closures, high fees or lack of access to technology to learn remotely. 

For at least 463 million children whose schools closed due to COVID-19, “there was no such a thing as remote learning,” the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday, as the agency launched a new report outlining the limitations of remote learning and exposing the deep inequalities in access.