News 12 has been following the impact coronavirus and related illnesses have on children. 

With so many unknowns about COVID-19, researchers are doing their part to get some answers, including those at Montefiore. 

A report published in The Journal of Pediatrics follows pediatric patients in the hospital during the surge of the pandemic who were admitted with COVID-19. 

They wanted to understand why they were admitted, how sick they were, what they found and what was going on with them. 

Now, the Montefiore team is starting new research on the multi-system inflammatory syndrome. 

"First and foremost...children are affected much less severely than adults, and so this seems to be affecting adults much more, but children who do come to the hospital and are admitted, about a third of them required intensive care,” said Dr. Jerry Chao. 

He says most of the children had underlying medical conditions already. He also says that information helped doctors learn what to watch out for and what treatments worked. 

"There were some children in our study that had characteristics that were similar to this syndrome, but it appears to be different because again the presentation is more recent,” said Dr. Chao.

The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore now has a center to treat patients with the syndrome.