How many children are hospitalized with COVID?The United States reported 260 pediatric hospitalizations daily last week

New York-The number of pediatric hospitalizations in New York City has increased five-fold this month. It’s almost double the number of hospitalizations in Washington, DC. Also, on a national average, pediatric hospitalizations have increased by 35% over the past week.

The highly contagious variant of Omicron, in cooperation with the busy holiday season, infects more children across the United States than ever before, and children’s hospitals are preparing for it to get worse.

Dr. Stanley Spinner, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Texas Pediatrics and Emergency Medical Care in Houston, told CNN:

“The number of incidents continues to increase between Christmas gatherings, and we’ll see even more this week,” Spinner said in a telephone interview.

“Now we have a New Year this weekend, more people are gathering, more exposure, and their numbers will continue to grow,” he added.

On average, about 260 children are hospitalized with COVID-19 daily in the United States, and nearly 2,000 children are currently infected with the virus, according to federal data.

more: Pediatric hospitalization in New York increased by 395% amid a surge in COVID

More kids in the hospital

Nationwide, pediatricians are preparing for a busy January.

Dr. Claudia Hoyen, Head of Pediatric Infection Control at Cleveland’s UH Rainbow Babys and Children’s Hospital, told CNN, “I can see the train going down the track and hope the train doesn’t go off track. There seems to be. ” ..

“This will be a very interesting few weeks. During Christmas, all these kids are mixed up with everyone else. There is another holiday to spend the New Year and then send everyone back. . Go to school. “

“Everyone is wondering what we’re going to see and waits a minute.”

The delta type has infected more children than the previous type, but Omicron is getting worse, Spinner said.

“The concern on the (children) side is that, unlike adults, the number of infected adults is relatively small and they are hospitalized. What we are actually seeing is an increase. I think it’s the number of children in the hospital. “

“It’s a concern for us, especially for those under the age of five who can’t be vaccinated, or who are over the age of five and who aren’t fully vaccinated or who haven’t been vaccinated at all.”

Spinners see little evidence that the Omicron variant causes more serious illness in children than previous variants, but they also see less evidence that it is milder.

“We do everything we can to keep our children away from the hospital, so if they are admitted to the hospital, that means they’re already pretty sick,” Spinner said. rice field.

“They need oxygen. They need other help. Most of these kids we admit to COVID, even if they are really dehydrated and need IV drip. Are children with respiratory problems. Oxygen and they need other support. So they will get pretty sick. You don’t see less sick kids in the hospital . “

He said most of the truly sick children were either unvaccinated or under-vaccinated. “Almost all of our children in the hospital are either unvaccinated or not completely vaccinated. Probably one vaccination but a second vaccination. It’s not, and it’s not completely protected from the vaccine, “Spinner said.

Virus finds a new niche: kids

Dr. Juan Salazar, chief physician at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, told CNN.

“It’s affecting a larger community, and it’s certainly affecting children in ways we’ve never seen before, and it’s new compared to last year,” he says. I did. In Connecticut, Salazar estimates that only about one-third of eligible children over the age of five are vaccinated.

“That’s why the virus found a niche, at least here in Connecticut, where the virus appears to have moved to an ongoing location,” he added. He said that younger children who have not yet been vaccinated, or older children who have not yet been fully vaccinated or who have not been vaccinated at all, are infected.

“Perhaps it became more widespread as we liberalized the get-together. Perhaps some masks came off-the family is tired. They have a strict isolation policy from a year ago. I’m willing to take some, “added Salazar.

“This has made these new variants more widespread, so children, who are currently at the highest risk because they are not vaccinated or have not been vaccinated. Is affecting. “

Some children have mild infections, but not all

In New Jersey, children appear to be only mild illnesses in most cases, said Dr. Jennifer Owensby, pediatric critical care department at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical College.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in COVID-positive children, but they don’t necessarily have COVID symptoms,” Owensby said. According to her, the children are coming in for other treatments and are tested positive when screened.

The same effect has boosted the number of cases in Washington, DC, said Dr. Roberta Deviasi, Chief Infectious Diseases, Children’s National Hospital. Nearly half of the COVID-19 test conducted there.

And the affected children are less ill than when the previous variants were in circulation. But she said there are definitely more children with symptoms than before.

“The amount of both the number of positive tests and the percentage of positive tests has increased significantly,” DeBiasi told CNN in a telephone interview. “Almost half of the tests (48% of the tests) are positive, which is much higher than the previous wave, which was on the order of 17% at most. And looking at the number of positive raw, the last wave So we were impressed with 80 positives a day and almost 200 positives one day so it’s very, very, very contagious. “

more: Exposed to COVID or tested positive?What the New CDC Quarantine Guidelines Mean for You

These tests include screening for children who come in with or without symptoms, community screening, random screening of patients who come for other types of treatment, and staff testing, Debiasi said. rice field.

“When you look at hospital admissions, there are many more,” she added. “Therefore, in previous waves, at the peak of those waves, about 18 children peaked in the hospital,” she says, and now there are days when as many as 30 children are hospitalized. rice field.

In New York City, state health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said admission to COVID-19 children’s hospitals has nearly quintupled since December 11. Twenty-two children were admitted to a New York City hospital during the week ending December 11. .. Last week, 109 children were hospitalized until December 23.

Over the same period, there was a 2.5-fold increase from 70 admissions to 184 visits across the state.

Children of all ages are vulnerable

Pediatricians agreed that children of all ages, from infants to teenagers, would be affected.

“We’re looking at almost every age group. We’re looking from toddlers to older teenagers. It’s definitely seen entirely,” Owensby said.

Owensby is worried about pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C.

“You can see it as early as a couple of weeks,” she said-but most often it starts turning you eight to ten weeks after the child becomes infected.

MIS-C is characterized by inflammation of the heart and other organs and is usually found in children who were not severely ill with COVID-19.

“The majority are asymptomatic,” Owensby said. “The scary thing is that before that I was a completely normal child. I had no underlying illness. I was a perfectly healthy child who manifested in heart failure and shock.”

The CDC has reported 5,973 MIS-C cases so far, and 52 children have died from the CDC.

“Like any other respiratory virus, you can have mild symptoms such as a runny nose, a slight cough, and even a fever,” Owensby said. “You have to be aware of the symptoms-fatigue, you can’t play,” she added.

Symptoms can be subtle, but MIS-C is serious.

“It’s about the kids. They’re fine until they don’t. Then suddenly they get seriously ill,” Owensby said.

DeBiasi said there were no signs of an increase in MIS-C cases. “We didn’t see an increase in MIS-C, but we didn’t expect it. It will take four to six weeks after the proliferation of new mutants,” she said.

Owensby advised that parents need to monitor their children and take care to protect them.

“I’m going back to due diligence. I’ll monitor my child’s social distance,” she advised. They need to wear masks at the right time-for example, when indoors with other unrelated people.

“Masks don’t hurt children,” Owensby said. She said younger children can enjoy wearing masks and playing superheroes.

“If possible, the whole family should be vaccinated,” she added. Vaccinated parents and siblings can protect young, unvaccinated children.

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