Unvaccinated children hospitalised at twice the rate during Omicron surge: US study

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WASHINGTON — Hospitalisation rates for unvaccinated children ages 5 to 11 were twice as high as among those who were vaccinated during the record Covid-19 surge caused by the Omicron variant, according to a United States (US) study released on Tuesday (April 19).

For every 100,000 unvaccinated children in the age group, 19.1 per were hospitalised with Covid-19 between mid-December and late February, compared with 9.2 per 100,000 vaccinated kids, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported.It found that among the 397 children who were hospitalised with Covid when Omicron was dominant, 87 per cent were unvaccinated, one third had no underlying medical conditions, and 19 per cent were admitted to an intensive care unit.

The highly contagious Omicron variant, which drove coronavirus infections to record levels in the United States in January, fuelled an increase in Covid-19 hospitalisations among those under age 18, leading to concerns about the impact on unvaccinated children. US regulators had authorised the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years in October, prior to the Omicron surge.

Just 28 per cent of children in the age group — around 8 million — are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data. The study also found that peak Covid-19 hospitalization rates among children in the age group were higher during the Omicron wave than when Delta was the predominant variant. REUTERS

 

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