The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reported that COVID-19 cases on children reached almost a million last week. As of January 13, cases reported were at 981,488, a 69 percent increase from the 580,247 cases last week.
The AAP said that the new case count is likely an underestimate of the number of cases as many kids have been tested at home with rapid tests. Some patients may not have been reported to health authorities or have not been tested due to a shortage of test kits.
Dr. Mark Kline, the physician-in-chief at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans, said that the figure is "really eye-popping." However, he does not think that the omicron variant has a propensity for children, but they are just widely affected. Since November, COVID-19 cases on children account for 20- to 25 percent of all US cases.
Cases of hospitalization in younger children
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the highest increase in hospitalization of younger children has been in California, Oregon, Georgia, Connecticut, and Tennessee.
In Pennsylvania, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia recorded 70 to 80 children hospitalized with COVID-19 at the peak of Omicron virus spread, but doctors note that the figure is now receding. The severity of cases tended to be lower than previous COVID -19 variant waves.
CDC reports that a quarter of 5 to 11-year-olds have received at least one dose of vaccine in the US. However, a senior physician in pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital, Richard Malley, said, "We have this population of children who are not vaccinated yet, and some of them are ineligible for vaccination." The unvaccinated are children and infants too young to get the vaccine.
Meanwhile, in Canada, hospitalizations among children are a record-high in the wake of the Omicron wave. Health experts also note that kids under five are more likely to get hospitalized than other age groups as they are not eligible for vaccines yet.
Symptoms of Omicron COVID-19 on Children
According to Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist in Québec, worsening cough, fever, chills, and shortness of breath are the most commonly reported symptoms.
Papenburg said that omicron gets in young children's airways. If babies have a lot of secretions, the secretions can block the lower airways and cause bronchiolitis.
Bronchiolitis is a common lung infection in young children and infants that causes inflammation and congestion in the lung's small airways. It usually starts with a common cold, eventually coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing.
Papenburg warns that the airways are tiny in young children, so "it doesn't take much for the mucus to block it up." The blocking of airways makes it difficult for babies to breathe, thus requiring medical assistance like oxygen therapy and vaccination.
The worst-case for infants and children is a complication called a multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a condition wherein different body parts become inflamed.
Papenburg said that there hadn't been deaths reported from the said condition.
Canada's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam advised adults around young children to vaccinate and keep wearing masks in public to keep COVID-19 away.
