More data show omicron’s toll on youngest children

Surveillance data continue to show that COVID-19 hospitalizations among young children increased fivefold during the omicron wave of SARS-CoV-2 compared with the peak of the delta wave, researchers reported in MMWR.

According to the COVID-NET Surveillance Network, from Dec. 19 to Feb. 19, weekly COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates per 100,000 infants and children aged 0 to 4 years peaked at 14.5 during the week ending Jan. 8 — about five times the rate during the delta wave from June 27 to Dec. 18.

Additionally, monthly ICU admission rates were approximately 3.5 times as high during the omicron peak in January (10.6 per 100,00 infants) as during the delta peak in September (3 per 100,000), although hospitalization rates among infants and children aged 0 to 4 years did decrease by Feb. 19.

A similar report was published in MMWR last month. In the new report, the researchers noted that the proportion of patients who also tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus was higher during delta wave than the omicron wave.

“These limited data suggest that the surge in hospitalizations during omicron predominance was not driven by coinfections,” they wrote.

They also said that throughout the pandemic, “infants aged [younger than 6] months have been hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 at higher rates than have infants and children aged 6 months [to] 4 years.”

With no COVID-19 vaccine authorized for the children aged 0 to 4 years, the researchers said everyone else who is eligible should get vaccinated to protect the youngest and most vulnerable.

“The proportion of hospitalized infants and children with severe illness during all variant periods of predominance, coupled with the potential for longer term sequelae including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children highlight the importance of preventing COVID-19 among infants and children,” they wrote.