(Belga) The delta variant does not cause more severe cases of COVID-19 in children and adolescents compared to other variants, according to the first data from a study released Friday by US health authorities.
Concerns about the consequences of the delta variant among the youngest have been increasing in the country for several weeks, given an increasing number of hospitalized children. The Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the leading federal public health agency, studied data from patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in 99 counties in 14 US states, covering approximately 10 percent of the US population. Specifically, the agency compared the period from early March to mid-June with that from mid-June to late July, when the delta variant became dominant in the United States. Between these two periods, the number of hospital admissions among children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years has effectively increased fivefold. However, the proportion of children and adolescents admitted to hospital for serious illness, for example with admission to intensive care, was comparable before and during the period in which the delta variant was dominant. Of the 3,116 children and adolescents hospitalized for delta in three and a half months, about 26 percent were admitted to intensive care, 6 pc were placed on a ventilator and less than 1 pc died. After delta dominance, of the 164 hospital admissions, about 23 pc were admitted to intensive care in one and a half months, 10 pc were given a ventilator and less than 2 pc died. The differences between the two periods are therefore not statistically significant. In addition, the study shows that vaccines still protect adolescents well against the delta variant: the number of hospitalizations was about ten times higher for unvaccinated adolescents than for those vaccinated during the delta dominance period. (Belgium)
Concerns about the consequences of the delta variant among the youngest have been increasing in the country for several weeks, given an increasing number of hospitalized children. The Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the leading federal public health agency, studied data from patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in 99 counties in 14 US states, covering approximately 10 percent of the US population. Specifically, the agency compared the period from early March to mid-June with that from mid-June to late July, when the delta variant became dominant in the United States. Between these two periods, the number of hospital admissions among children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years has effectively increased fivefold. However, the proportion of children and adolescents admitted to hospital for serious illness, for example with admission to intensive care, was comparable before and during the period in which the delta variant was dominant. Of the 3,116 children and adolescents hospitalized for delta in three and a half months, about 26 percent were admitted to intensive care, 6 pc were placed on a ventilator and less than 1 pc died. After delta dominance, of the 164 hospital admissions, about 23 pc were admitted to intensive care in one and a half months, 10 pc were given a ventilator and less than 2 pc died. The differences between the two periods are therefore not statistically significant. In addition, the study shows that vaccines still protect adolescents well against the delta variant: the number of hospitalizations was about ten times higher for unvaccinated adolescents than for those vaccinated during the delta dominance period. (Belgium)
–
