For the past 21 weeks, the US is seeing more than 100,000 cases on a daily rate. Among these, the number of child cases is also increasing. Currently, children make up to 28% of all the active cases in the US which is a worrisome issue among doctors and parents as well.
Child Covid Cases On An Exponential Rise Throughout US
As per the American Academy of Paediatrics and Children Association, there has been an increase of 24% in child cases since the past week. This is the highest jump to be recorded in children since the start of the pandemic. As many as 164,000 child cases have been reported in the US last week alone.
From September first ween 2.1 million child case of covid has been registered. Health care experts state that these numbers are going to increase due to Omicron and because many of the kids are now traveling with their families for holidays.
Wendy Hasson who is a pediatric surgeon in Portland states that seeing cases of covid 19 and MIS-C is extremely hard. In MIS-C multiple organs of the body start to get inflamed and covid is known as a major trigger for this. Among all the cases reported in kids, 2% need to be hospitalized which means from 164,000 in the last week roughly 3,200 kids would have been admitted to the hospital.
Many of the smaller states are now seeing an increase in hospitalization wherein there are no ICU beds. Hasson states that when a kid comes for a bed and the ICU is not available then it is heartbreaking.
Another trend that has been observed all over the US is that the number of child vaccination is going down now. As of now, 5 million kids in the age group of 5 to 11 have been vaccinated which is a great step. It was earlier termed that the vaccination of kids is much faster as compared to adults however now the speed has been dropped. Melissa Stockwell who is the division chief of child and adolescent health stated that this is expected.
Whenever FDA (Food and Drug Administration) gives green light for any age group there is a huge surge as all the people who want to get vaccinated would come forward and people who are still in two minds would stay back, however, the number of people in the initial surge is too much that the people who are still thinking about vaccines seems too low.
In the current scenario, most of the parents are not sure if the vaccines would be enough to protect their child from Omicron hence they have decided to keep them indoors during vacation times.
Still, 30% of the parents are adamant about not vaccinating their kids in the age group of 5 to 17. Stockwell stated that there is much work to be done in this area as people need to be more educated as to why vaccination is important. Hassen stated that every single vaccine against Omicron counts even if it is the first vaccine by the child or a booster shot by the parent.
Dr. Anthony Fauci the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease stated that kids over the age of 6 months would also be eligible for vaccination from spring, however, no final date has yet been given. FDA and other pharma companies are also working and testing the vaccine to check if it is safe to administer to this young age group as well.
No statements have been made for booster shots below the age group of 15.
