COVID-19: Hospitalizations of kids under 4 is increasing -CDC

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said that hospitalization rates among the youngest children are reaching their highest levels, as the omicron variant spreads and babies and toddlers remain ineligible to be vaccinated.

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The CDC Director disclosed this on Friday saying, “Although hospitalization rates among the youngest children remain lower compared to many older Americans, data from the CDC indicate 4.3 per 100,000 children 4 years old and younger were hospitalized in the week ending Jan. 1. Children ages 5 to 17 had a hospitalization rate of 1.1, while adults ages 18 to 49 had a rate of 4.2. The rate among people 65 and older was 14.7 per 100,000,” according to the CDC data.

“The agency was still probing how many of these pediatric hospitalizations were due to COVID-related admissions alone and how many were for young children being hospitalized for other reasons and then testing positive for COVID-19. Winter is a busy time for pediatric hospitalizations due to other respiratory viruses,” Walensky added.

At the Friday news conference — the first held by the CDC without other agencies in months —Walensky addressed questions around the CDC’s revised guidelines that shortened the amount of time recommended to isolate or quarantine, which had drawn pushback. Some public health experts said people could still be contagious after five days of an infection and were worried about the high transmissibility of the omicron variant.

Walensky said much of the decision to change the guidelines came from data analyses of the contagiousness of past variants, as similar analyses for omicron wouldn’t be ready for several weeks.

She further said that “while people may leave isolation after their fifth day if they are symptom free, the recommendation that they wear a mask for five more days is because they may have some “residual contagion.”

Okwuego/USA Today