According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of children under the age of four in the US hospitalized with COVID-19 was five times higher during the peak of the Omicron surge than at the peak of the Delta.
A study released by the agency on Tuesday found that children between the ages of zero and six months were most affected by Omicron, with about 60 out of every 100,000 hospitalized with Covid at the peak of the highly contagious variant.
While hospitalization data is often misleading because it includes people being treated for another condition and testing positive when present, the CDC reports that 85 percent of the hospitalizations included in the study were due to Covid as the underlying cause.
The numbers from this report may be startling, but the number of children hospitalized with Covid – even at its peak – is still lower than that of adults.
Plenty of evidence shows that children are also extremely unlikely to die or suffer from the most severe symptoms of the virus.
Even during hospitalization peaks, mortality remained low, with only four Covid deaths in children reported at the peak of the Delta variant and two at the peak of Omicron.
The CDC reports that the number of children hospitalized with Covid was five times higher during the peak of Omicron than at the peak of the Delta variant, with children six months of age or younger being most affected (black line).
The CDC reports that even despite the spike during Omicron, hospitalizations among children (dashed line) remained significantly lower than those among adults (dashed line) throughout the pandemic.
Data was collected through the Coronavirus 19 Hospitalization Surveillance Network from March 2020 to mid-January 2022.
Children aged four and under were included in the study, as this is the only remaining age group in America that is still not eligible for vaccination.
At the peak of the Omicron surge, which the CDC defined as the week ending January 8, 2022, 14.5 of every 100,000 American children aged four and under were hospitalized with the virus.
During the peak of the Delta variant, the week ending 9/11, only 2.9 out of every 100,000 children were hospitalized with the virus.
In comparison, the overall hospitalization rate among the US population reached about 30 per 100,000 residents during the same January week and 11 per 100,000 residents during the September week.
There is growing evidence that children are at low risk of contracting the virus and that infant mortality is extremely rare. Pictured: A small child in Chicago, Illinois, is being tested for COVID-19 on December 14.
This suggests that children still made up a very small proportion of the total number of hospitalized Covid patients during both weeks, as has been the case throughout the pandemic.
About half of the children hospitalized with Covid had some underlying medical condition, which also increased the risk of severe infection, the report said.
During the Omicron, children under six months of age were the hardest hit, with hospitalization rates in this age group jumping six-fold during the winter surge.
However, this age group is often hospitalized for other reasons, and the CDC report did not indicate if this age group had more hospitalizations for non-Covid reasons than others.
The age group of six to 23 months peaked during the Omicron surge with just over ten hospitalizations per 100,000 people, while the age group of two to four reached almost five cases per 100,000 people.
The data show that children are at low risk of contracting COVID-19, with a growing body of evidence showing that they are not as susceptible to the disease as adults.
The CDC reports that children account for less than 0.1 percent of Covid deaths in the US since the pandemic began.
The agency did not immediately respond to ‘s request for its response to the released guidance.
A study last year at the University of Utah found that 50 percent of COVID-19 cases in children are asymptomatic. The study was done before a milder version of Omicron was available, which means the risk of children even experiencing symptoms is now likely lower.
Children may also be less likely to spread the virus when they become infected: a German study found that they shed just 25 percent of viral particles than adults.
Data released by New York State officials late last month also showed that the vaccine was only 12 percent effective in preventing Covid infections in children aged five to 11.