The New York State Department of Health is urging parents to get all children who are 5 and older vaccinated, citing a jump in pediatric hospitalizations associated with the coronavirus.
Beginning the week of Dec. 5 through the current week, there has been a fourfold increase in Covid hospital admissions among children in New York City, where the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly, the department said in an advisory on Friday. About half were under the age of 5, and not eligible for vaccination.
The advisory did not give the specific number of New York City’s pediatric Covid hospitalizations, but state data shows that more than 50 children under the age of 5 were hospitalized with Covid across New York as of Thursday.
The jump in pediatric cases is evident in other states as well. The American Academy of Pediatrics reported last week that Covid cases were “extremely high” among those under the age of 18 across the country. Citing data as of Dec. 16, the academy said cases among those under 18 had risen by 170,000 for the prior week, an increase of nearly 28 percent since early December. Pediatric cases are higher than ever before in the Northeast and Midwest, the data show, and all regions of the country have significantly more such cases since schools reopened for in-person instruction this fall.
The New York State advisory reported that during the week that preceded Dec. 19, none of the 5- to 11-year-old Covid patients admitted to the hospital had been fully vaccinated. In the same period, one-fourth of the 12- to 17-year-old hospitalized Covid patients had been fully vaccinated. As of Friday, only 16 percent of the state’s children aged 5 to 11 were fully vaccinated, the advisory said, a proportion that rose to 64 percent for those aged 12 to 17.
“The risks of Covid-19 for children are real,” Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the acting state health commissioner, said in a statement. “We are alerting New Yorkers to this recent striking increase in pediatric Covid-19 admissions so that pediatricians, parents and guardians can take urgent action to protect our youngest New Yorkers. We must use all available safe and effective infection control, prevention and mitigation strategies.”
Overall, cases in the state have spiraled upward this month, driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The new variant made up 92 percent of new cases in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate released Monday that grouped the four areas together. There were 32,591 new cases reported in New York on Friday, according to a New York Times database, a stark increase from the 6,644 reported on the last day of November.
Some public health officials are predicting a continued steep increase in Omicron cases over the next few weeks, followed by a steep decline, similar to South Africa’s experience with the variant.
Dr. Bassett said that parents could help shield children too young to be eligible for vaccination by ensuring that those around them have been vaccinated and received boosters, as well as by wearing masks, avoiding crowds and taking tests.
The department encouraged parents and guardians to be aware of common Covid symptoms in children, including fatigue, headache, trouble sleeping, muscle aches, a cough that becomes productive, sore throat, chills, nasal congestion and a new loss of taste or smell. If a member of the household is exposed to the coronavirus, the advisory said, children should also undergo testing, social distancing and quarantining.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/25/world/omicron-covid-vaccine-tests
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