Laboratory Investigations
The most commonly encountered white blood cell (WBC) abnormalities were neutropenia, lymphocytosis and leukopenia that were present in 16.6% (95% CI 10.2-25.8%), 15.3% (95% CI 9.9 – 23.0%) and 13.9% (95% CI 10.1 – 18.8%) patients respectively. From the array of abnormal laboratory findings in pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection, more prevalent ones included elevated inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) (elevated in 22.6%, 95% CI 17.2-29%) and procalcitonin (elevated in 31.8%, 95% CI 22.3 – 43.1, I2> 75), abnormal liver function tests (LFT) (21.3%, 95% CI 14.6 – 30.0%, I2 > 75), creatinine kinase (CK) (elevated in 17%, 95% CI 10.1 – 27.3), D-dimer (elevated in 16.2%, 95% CI 10.9 – 23.4%) and cardiac biomarkers troponin (high in 23%, 95% CI 3.6 – 70.0%, I2 > 75) and creatinine kinase – MB (CK-MB) (high in 21.1%, 95% CI 11.9 – 34.6%, I2 > 75). An additional interesting finding extracted from 21 studies showed co-infections (22.4%, 95% CI 15.0 – 31.9%) in children with COVID-19, the most common being bacterial co-infections (19.9% 14.3-26.9%) followed by influenza A or B (6.8%, 95% CI, 3.2 – 13.7%).
Radiological Findings
Computed Tomography (CT) of the chest appeared to be the imaging modality of choice over chest x-rays from the meta-analyzed studies in Table 3. The most common CT abnormality, occurring in more than one third of the patients, was ground glass opacities (GGO) (35.9% with 95% CI 29.4 - 43%).
Treatment
93.9% of patients (95% CI 87.6 – 97.1%) received some form of treatment (includes the treatment options listed in Table 4 as well as symptomatic and herbal treatments). Antiviral therapies were the most prescribed treatments at 82.7% (95% CI 62.6 – 93.2%) and included interferon α, lopinavir/ritonavir, oseltamivir and, umifenovir (in China). A significant proportion of patients got antibiotics (42.9% with 95% CI 33.3 – 53.1%) during their course of illness.
Clinical Outcomes
Majority of the patients included in the meta-analysis were hospitalized out of which 11.2% (95% CI 4.7 – 24.2%, I2> 75) received treatment in the intensive care unit. Over 80% of patients were discharged during the course of the studies (83.3% with 95% CI 74.6 – 89.4%). The proportion of deaths was 4.2% (95% CI 2.6 – 6.9%).
Publication Bias and Heterogeneity across Studies 
44 out of the 68 variables analyzed did not have significant bias, denoted by an Egger’s p value > 0.05. Majority of the variables were homogenous; only 11 variables had heterogenous data based on I2 index > 75.