FIGURE 1
As shown by the literature retrieval flowchart in Figure 1, 1703 pediatric COVID-19 articles were searched from two databases (PubMed and Scopus) from December 2019 to July 2020 with a predefined search strategy. Out of those, 734 duplicate studies were excluded and 784 studies did not meet the eligibility criteria for meta-analysis, owing to inappropriate study type/ focus or lack of relevant clinical pediatric data when screened with title and abstract. Of the remaining 185 full text articles that met the eligibility criteria, 37 studies comprising of 993 patients sieved through the rigorous criteria of inclusion for meta-analysis. Remaining studies were excluded due to inadequate sample size, insufficient availability of data and other reasons described in Figure 1. The journal name, PMID and characteristics of the 37 studies selected for meta-analysis, and funnel plots and forest plots are shown in the supplementary material.