Children can feel neglected when in isolation, and may assume that nobody cares about them. In this case, the parents were advised not to worry and instead, spend more time with him, engage him in games, listen to him and hug him.

Home isolation is far better than isolating Covid-positive children in hospital if they are asymptomatic, experts say. Remaining within the four walls of a hospital for 14 days can be troubling for kids. “Younger children in hospital become irritable, feel lonely and strange as they are attended to by people dressed in PPE kits, their appetite is hampered, they miss attention from parents and also from grandparents, if they come from joint families.

Adolescents infected by Covid tend to feel anxious about having the illness itself. Irrespective of being infected by Covid or not, doctors find that isolating oneself at home has had a detrimental effect on children. Weight gain due to comfort feeding, headaches due to increased screen time, lack of sleep, low mood, inability to concentrate, forgetting what they have just learnt are some of the symptoms observed, owing to poor social interaction during this time.

If a mother would check the daughter’s oxygen saturation levels on a daily basis, though she had not contracted the disease. “This led to the child having panic attacks, breakdowns and anxiety, fueled by watching news on Covid-19 on television. A lot of anxiety has been observed in children in the age group of 8 to 12, where they assume that Covid means death.

They become quiet and withdrawn, As there is no clear distinction between office and home due to work from home, parents are, in fact, paying lesser attention to children, which affects them. 

"From our analysis, it is clear there are strong associations between loneliness and depression in young people, both in the immediate and the longer term. We know this effect can sometimes be lagged, meaning it can take up to 10 years to really understand the scale of the mental health impact the COVID-19 crisis has created," said Dr Maria Loades, clinical psychologist from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, who led the work.

She adds, "There is evidence that it's the duration of loneliness as opposed to the intensity, which seems to have the biggest impact on depression rates in young people. This means that returning to some degree of normality as soon as possible is, of course, important. However, how this process is managed matters when it comes to shaping young people's feelings and experiences about this period. For our youngest and their return to school from this week, we need to prioritise the importance of play in helping them to reconnect with friends and adjust following this intense period of isolation."

Members of the review team, focusing on support for children's social and emotional wellbeing during and after lockdown, have wrote in an open letter to the UK Education Secretary that:

·         The easing of lockdown restrictions should be done in a way that provides all children with the time and opportunity to play with peers, in and outside of school, and even while social distancing measures remain in place.