Child COVID Hospitalizations Are Up, Especially in These 5 States

In the past 4 weeks, the mean fig of children hospitalized with COVID-19 successful the U.S. jumped 52 %, from 1,270 connected Nov. 29 to 1,933 connected Sunday, according to an NBC News investigation of Department of Health and Human Services data.

And successful 10 states, arsenic good arsenic successful Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, the fig of kids hospitalized with COVID has much than doubled, according to the analysis. The information does not specify whether the children were vaccinated oregon vaccine-eligible.

But the states that person contributed the astir to the emergence successful pediatric hospitalizations are Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious illness expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center successful Nashville, Tennessee, said the contagiousness of omicron serves arsenic the latest reminder that children are not immune to COVID.

"We saw akin things hap erstwhile the delta variant came along," helium said. "We had taken for granted that children were comparatively under-affected by COVID, and we saw an uptick successful the fig of children infected and truthful admitted to the infirmary with complications."

In general, pediatric COVID cases are mild compared with those of adults. But kids tin make superior complications, including long-haul COVID and an inflammatory syndrome that reaches respective organs, called MIS-C. The syndrome is astir communal successful children ages 5 to 11.