SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California officials say hospitals are admitting children with COVID-19 at an unprecedented rate, mirroring a nationwide trend as the omicron variant continues spreading across the United States.
While the number of kids entering hospitals is on the rise, physicians say the severity of their infections is not as bad as those seen in previous surges.
In a call with reporters on Wednesday, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the admissions are higher than ones recorded last winter when cases soared.
"Just like other states are reporting, other nations are reporting, more young people with COVID are being admitted,” Ghaly said. “In California, we have admitted more patients on a day-to-day basis over the last few days than we did even at the peak of last winter’s surge.”
The previous record for pediatric admissions was 41 in one day, according to the California Department of Health. At that time about one year ago, adult admissions numbered about 3,000.
Now, the department said it has seen daily pediatric admissions of 50 to 60 children for three days straight. On Jan. 4, the state reached 90 pediatric admissions in one day.
The adult admission rate, meanwhile, remains lower than it was last year, about 1,600 to 2,200 adult COVID-19 hospitalizations a day. Ghaly said hospitals are able to take on the demand for pediatric admissions, and that many of the children who are admitted aren’t put in intensive care or on ventilators.
The situation in California is similar to the one unfolding across the nation. The Centers for Disease Control on Friday said the number of young children, age 4 and younger, admitted to the hospital who test positive for the virus rose to the highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic last week.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said children infected with the variant are still at much less risk of severe illness than adults.
"We have not yet seen a signal that there is any increased severity in this age demographic,” Walensky told reporters on Friday, according to the New York Times. “Sadly, we are seeing the rates of hospitalizations increasing for children 0 to 4, who are not yet currently eligible for COVID-19 vaccination...It’s critically important that we surround them with people who are vaccinated to provide them protection.”
According to CDC data, 15.6% of American children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The CDC on Wednesday also backed booster shots for children ages 12 to 15.
California has a higher rate of vaccination among children than the national rate. Of the state’s more than 3.5 million 5 to 11 year olds, 18.5% are fully vaccinated, and 8.9% are partially vaccinated.
Hospitals in the Sacramento area have seen an uptick in pediatric COVID-19 admissions said Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
"This is something that we expected,” Blumberg said. “This is very similar to the surge that occurred last winter and also the surge that occurred with delta over the summer.”
It’s unclear if the hospitalized kids are infected with omicron, he said. Hospitals often just get a positive or negative test, and can’t do genomic sequencing to identify variants.
Doctors say infections during this surge are less severe than previous surges. Instead of pneumonia, kids are being admitted with milder complications, like croup or bronchiolitis.
“Things that you could get with any common viral infection,” Blumberg said. “That aligns with what we’ve been hearing about how omicron does generally cause milder illness than previous strains.”
Since young children lack the protection from the vaccine, Blumberg said parents should reconsider some of their normal activities, like eating in restaurants or other places where people are unmasked.
It’s also helpful to keep kids in a “cocoon” of vaccinated people to protect them from catching the virus, he said. It’s unclear when this surge will hit its peak. Blumberg said some models show infections peaking next week, others predict it will peak in early February.
“Either way, it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.
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