NEW YORK – Pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations increased eightfold in New York state from early December to the end of the month, and the vast majority of those children were not vaccinated, the state said Friday.
The new report follows an ominous Christmas Eve advisory to pediatricians, warning that hospitalizations rose rapidly as the Omicron variant swept through the state.
Friday’s report indicates that the situation only continued to get worse after that. In the week ending Jan. 1, there were 571 pediatric COVID hospitalizations statewide, the New York State Department of Health said, up from 70 weeks earlier.
Of those admitted, 91% of children between 5 and 11 years old were not vaccinated, as well as 65% of children between 12 and 17 years old.
But overall, more than half of the hospitalizations were in children under the age of 4, who are not yet eligible for vaccinations. Children under the age of 4 make up about a quarter of all children in the state, meaning they are hospitalized in about twice their share of the population.
In New York City alone, COVID hospitalizations in those under 18 years of age increased 17-fold, more than double the growth rate of the general population.
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