CHILD CORONAVIRUS. The number of coronavirus cases, like hospital data, continues to increase mainly in children, a tiny part of whom is also affected by pediatric multi-systemic inflammatory syndrome (PIMS)…
The peak of the 5th wave of coronavirus is long overdue in France, which sees rebounds and case records multiply in January. But this peak can probably only be reached when the virus is less active in schools and among children, who, after months of procrastination, have emerged as a real vector for the spread of the epidemic since last fall. . For the moment, signs of an improvement remain very weak, as evidenced by the number of classes closed due to Covid, which is breaking a new record (more than 21,000) according to the Ministry of Education figures this Friday, January 28.
The figures for the Covid-19 epidemic in children in France are in keeping. The number of children aged 0 to 9 tested positively, according to the latest updated data from Public Health France, was 90,880 cases as of January 24, 2022. A figure still on the rise compared to the previous week (+5,704 cases) . Among 10-19 year olds, it was 131,888 new cases according to the same data (+10,773 cases). The incidence rates by school level are also continuing to progress, with now 7,096.36 cases per 100,000 among primary (+177.84 points in one week), 7,617.33 cases per 100,000 among middle school students (+192.15) and 7376.62 cases per 100,000 among high school students (+125.30). The only indicator in decline: the incidence rate in kindergarten, which fell by 15.7 points to reach 4820.67 cases per 100,000 pupils. Enough to hope for a general improvement?
100 children in intensive care and PIMS cases on the rise
If they are not the most at risk, children also remain visibly affected by the virus. 640 children aged 0 to 9 were hospitalized with a coronavirus infection on January 27, 2022, 61 more than the previous week. 510 patients aged between 10 and 19 were also in the hospital, this time 94 more than 7 days earlier. In addition, 109 children between the ages of 0 and 9 and 55 patients between the ages of 10 and 19 were in critical care on January 27, 2022, respectively 14 and 20 more than the previous week. Figures to qualify, hospitalized can be admitted for another reason as recalled by several media, including BFMTV recently.
To these data must be added 849 cases of pediatric multi-systemic inflammatory syndrome (PIMS), a syndrome similar to Kawasaki disease, since the start of the pandemic. Complications indirectly linked to a Covid-19 infection. The last PIMS (or MIS-C) case surveillance record, established by Public Health France on January 27, 2022, evokes a “very marked increase” in the number of cases recorded each week since December. Among the children affected, 353 were treated in intensive care, i.e. 42% and 250 in continuous care unit, i.e. 29%, the others having been hospitalized in pediatrics. Public Health France also reports a death “in an array of systemic inflammation with myocarditis”.
The government, via Public Health France and Data.gouv, has put in place a certain number of indicators which make it possible to follow the evolution of Covid according to age groups. In the graphs below, you will be able to follow day by day the number of positive cases detected daily in children (data at D-3), the evolution of the incidence rates over the last week, but also the last figures on the number of children hospitalized and in intensive care published each evening by the authorities.
This dashboard shows the number of children from 0 to 9 years old and from 10 to 19 years old tested positive in the latest figures communicated by Public Health France (consolidated figures at D-3, updated every evening except Friday and weekend).
PRDECISION. The evolution of the screening strategy in schools, and in particular the deployment of saliva tests for students, have obviously come to inflate these figures since mid-November. But the latter only confirm that SARS-CoV-2 circulates at least as strongly among children, a segment of the population that is mostly unvaccinated, as in the rest of the population.
If we follow the evolution of the number of positive tests reported daily among 0 to 9 year olds and 10 to 19 year olds, the different waves of the coronavirus epidemic are clearly visible among the youngest. The indicators seem to follow the same trend as the data for the general population:
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Here is the incidence rate (number of cases per 100,000) measured in 0-9 year olds and 10-19 year olds. This rate is measured over the last calendar week. The gray curve represents the incidence rate in the general population.
The Ministry of Health and Data.gouv also provide incidence rates by school level, which give an idea of the spread of the virus in finer age groups and make the link with the circulation of Covid at school. . Please note: this time the data is not delivered over the last calendar week (full week from Monday to Sunday), but over a rolling week.
How does this change in the number of cases and incidence in hospitals translate? Here are the number of children aged 0-9 and 10-19 hospitalized with coronavirus infection. Figures updated every evening between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
PRECISION : Public Health France specifies that the data on hospitalizations take into account patients admitted to hospital “with” Covid-19 and not “for” Covid-19. They can therefore take into account patients hospitalized for another reason. “Among all Covid-19 patients, the proportion of patients admitted to hospital for a reason other than Covid-19 (but carriers of SARS-CoV-2)” was between 21 and 26% at the beginning of January according to Public Health France.
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Here is the number of children aged 0-9 and 10-19 in intensive care due to coronavirus infection. Figures updated every evening between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
These Covid figures in children seem to draw a double observation: the youngest, who are not vaccinated before the age of 12, do indeed seem to be just as affected in France by the coronavirus (if not more depending on the period), but these contaminations do not quite translate into hospitals and intensive care units. There remains the question of the accelerator that children can constitute in the progression of the epidemic. More affected, they can potentially transmit the virus more massively in the intra-family sphere and cause a leverage effect. It is this argument which had been taken into account in particular in the choice to close the schools before the Easter holidays in 2020.