Seattle Children’s says severity of omicron seems less than delta
Jan 2, 2022, 7:53 AM
Operating rooms at Seattle Children's are now closed indefinitely. (KIRO 7 file photo)
(KIRO 7 file photo)
The omicron variant is pushing U.S. infection rates to new highs and children are not being spared.
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Seattle Children’s Hospital, which tests every child for COVID-19 as they are admitted, says they are seeing an increase in positive tests.
As of Dec. 29, the 7-day new COVID-19 cases rate (per 100K population), for 4- to 10-year-olds was 197.1, for 11- to 13-year-olds was 266.2, and for 14- to 19-year-olds was 411.6, according to data from the state department of health. Those numbers are a slight dip from Dec. 24, but that could be due to a huge increase in testing before the Christmas holiday. It also follows the pattern seen across the rest of the age groups in Washington.
The hospital’s critical care chief, Doctor John McGuire, tells KIRO Radio, “We’ve just seen a slight bump up in the number of admissions. Fortunately, the severity of illness seems to be less than what we saw with the delta variant.”
McGuire said more children were admitted to the hospital in August and September and more children were in the ICU with severe illness.
Across the U.S., during the week of Dec. 21-27, an average of 334 children 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 58% increase from the week before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The previous peak over the course of the pandemic was in early September, when child hospitalizations averaged 342 per day, the CDC said.
McGuire emphasized that getting the COVID vaccine is making a difference in preventing children from getting dangerously ill.
“Overall, throughout the last several months, we have seen very few vaccinated children who need to be hospitalized,” he said.
Two months after vaccinations were approved for 5- to 11-year-olds, about 14% are fully protected, CDC data shows. The rate is higher for 12- to 17-year-olds, at about 53%. In Washington state, the DOH reports about 126,000 5- to 11-year-olds are vaccinated — that’s about 18.6% of the 677,743 children in that age group in the state.
McGuire cautions that Western Washington is in early stages of an omicron surge, and we’ve yet to see what will happen as school resumes after the holidays.
