COVID-19 hospitalizations in young children have reached their highest level yet in the United States, as Omicron fuels a major surge in cases, but it is not clear yet whether the variant causes more severe disease in young children, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s telephone briefing with reporters on COVID-19 was among the first in months and followed criticism over recent guidance given by the agency, and lack of access by the media to her beyond carefully orchestrated and televised White House COVID-19 briefings.
“We have not yet seen a signal that there is any increased severity” in children under 5, who are not yet eligible for vaccination, Walensky told the briefing. She said the increase in cases in general could be one explanation for the surge in hospitalizations.
Read more: Omicron FAQ: Everything you need to know about the COVID-19 variant
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She said the cases represent both increases in children coming to the hospital because of COVID-19 and those coming to the hospital for another reason and then testing positive for COVID.
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Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said this week there were 15 children in the hospital’s intensive care unit, most of whom were unvaccinated.
Offit said the cases appear to be less severe. “What we’re seeing much more than we saw with Delta is more croup and bronchiolitis in kids. It’s more upper respiratory infections than lower respiratory infections, so it’s not as much pneumonia.”
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