‘It’s just so heartbreaking’
US children hospitalised with COVID in record numbers
SEATTLE — The Omicron-fuelled surge that is sending COVID-19 cases rocketing in the US is putting children in the hospital in record numbers, and experts lament that most of the youngsters are not vaccinated.
“It’s just so heartbreaking,” said Dr Paul Offit, an infectious-disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“It was hard enough last year, but now you know that you have a way to prevent all this.”
During the week of December 2228, an average of 378 children 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 66 per cent increase from the week before, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
The previous high over the course of the pandemic was in early September, when child hospitalisations averaged 342 per day, the CDC said.
On a more hopeful note, children continue to represent a small percentage of those being hospitalised with COVID-19: An average of nearly 10,200 people of all ages were admitted per day during the same week in December.
And many doctors say the youngsters seem less sick than those who came in during the Delta surge over the summer.
Two months after vaccinations were approved for 5- to 11-year-olds, about 14 per cent are fully protected, CDC data shows.
The rate is higher for 12 to 17-yearolds, at about 53 per cent.
A study released Thursday by the CDC confirmed that serious side effects from the Pfizer vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 are rare. The findings were based on approximately 8 million doses dispensed to youngsters in that age group.