ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people with a wide range of presentations from asymptomatic to multiorgan failure, including neurological presentations. Facial nerve palsy is a commonly encountered presentation, however a rare presentation of COVID-19. Decio, et al has reported facial nerve palsy in a 15 month old with positive serological testing for COVID-19. We report a rare case of facial nerve palsy as a clinical presentation of COVID-19 infection. A 9 years old boy was admitted in March 2022 to Hospital Sungai Buloh;designated National COVID-19 centre, was referred to the Otorhinolaryngology team for a sudden onset of right sided facial nerve palsy as the main symptom on day 8 of illness of COVID-19 infection. He was treated with standard treatment of tapering dose of oral prednisolone, eye lubricant, eye patch and physiotherapy. The child was followed up in the outpatient clinic in 3 weeks interval revealing partial recovery of the palsy. As seen in this case, facial nerve palsy can be the main presentation of COVID-19 in children making its worthwhile to add this symptom into the spectrum of neurological presentation of COVID-19 and to screen children presenting with facial nerve palsy for COVID-19 in the current epidemiology context.