While vaccination against Covid-19 is now accessible to children from the age of five, Public Health France published on January 14, 2022 a situation update on Covid-19 among 0-17 year olds. What is the profile of children hospitalized for Covid-19?
Public health France is the national public health agency. This public establishment, created in May 2016, is placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. It regularly publishes epidemiological points on the Covid-19 in France, but also on the fluthe bronchiolitis… The bulletin of January 14 gate on Covid-19 in the pediatric population, from 0 to 17 years old.
The 0-17 year olds represent 21.5% of the population in France, and “only” 3 to 5% of patients hospitalized for Covid-19. This means that it is a population that is generally not very hospitalized compared to other age groups. However, while the proportion of children under 17 hospitalized has not changed, the total number of hospitalizations has increased since the beginning of December.
Data do not support increased severity in children
At the time of publication of this epidemiological point, 552 children under 9 years old and 380 between 10 and 19 years old are hospitalized for a Covid-19, including 91 and 31 in critical care, respectively. If these figures are impressive, they are not alarming because they are proportional to those observed in adults. Public Health France concludes that “ the data do not support a gravity increased in children “.
Moreover, these figures are to be taken with hindsight. Indeed, the number of children hospitalized includes children who were hospitalized for a reason other than Covid-19 and who tested positive on entering the hospital. This would represent 15 to 30% of the beds.
Many infants under 1 year old
One element emerges from the results of Public Health France: it is the increase in the number of children under 1 year old hospitalized in conventional care, critical care or intensive care units. Public Health France specifies that an epidemic of bronchiolitis is underway, as every winter in France. Hospitalizations are frequent in case of bronchiolitis in infants. When a child is co-infected with bronchiolitis virus and SARS-CoV-2it is very difficult to know what the symptoms are linked to one or the other of these two viruses.
If these first data are reassuringPublic Health France stresses that it is still too early to “ accurately characterize hospitalized pediatric cases due to the Omicron variant “. For additional information, the childhood vaccination rate remains weak for the moment. As of January 10, 2022, 1.2% of 5-9 year olds and 4% of 10-11 year olds have received at least a first dose of anti-Covid-19 vaccine. Nearly 80% of 12-18 year olds have received two doses.
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