Hospitalizations for Kids Sharply Improve as Delta Surges

In the last month as Delta increased, the incidence of Covid in children increased compared to earlier this summer, reaching 16.2 cases per 100,000 children under 4 years of age; 28.5 cases per 100,000 children ages 5-11; and 32.7 cases per 100,000 children ages 12-17.

That rate represented a sharp increase from a June low of 1.7 per 100,000 children under 4 years of age; 1.9 cases per 100,000 children ages 5-11; and 2.9 per 100,000 children between the ages of 12 and 17. It was still below the highest incidence of cases in children last January.

The proportion of Covid patients under 17 years of age who were admitted to intensive care units was between 10 and 25 percent from August 2020 to June last year and, according to the CDC study, was 20 percent by July 2021.

In a second study, the researchers analyzed data from the Covid-Net surveillance network, which contains information on hospital admissions in 99 counties in 14 states.

Over the course of the pandemic – or from March 1, 2020 to August 14, 2021 – there were 49.7 Covid-related hospital admissions per 100,000 children and adolescents, the researchers found.

But weekly prices have been rising since July. In the week ending August 14, there were 1.4 Covid-related hospital admissions for 100,000 children, compared with 0.3 in late June and early July. (That remains slightly below the peak weekly rate of 1.5 hospital admissions per 100,000 children in the post-vacation fall wave in early January 2021.)

Hospitalization rates have increased most in children under the age of 4. In the week ending August 14, there were 1.9 hospital admissions per 100,000 children in this age group, almost ten times as many as at the end of June.

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