Machine learning forecasting for COVID-19 pandemic-associated effects on paediatric respiratory infections.

We demonstrate the association between COVID-19 related restrictions and significant reductions in paediatric seasonal respiratory infections. Moreover, while many infection rates have returned to expected levels postrestrictions, others remain supressed or followed atypical winter trends. This study further demonstrates the applicability and efficacy of routine electronic record data and cross-domain time-series forecasting to model, monitor, analyse and address clinically important issues.