Children are at risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control warned in a report on Friday.
© (Seth Wenig / AP file)
FILE – In this June 10, 2020, stock photo, Olivia Chan’s father helps her with a new mask she received during a graduation ceremony for her Pre-K class for Bradford School in Jersey City, NJ school districts in America are in amid faltering decisions over the summer on how to restore lessons in institutions radically changed by the coronavirus pandemic, with socially distant school buses, virtual learning, outdoor schools and quarantine protocols for infected children as the new norm. (AP photo / Seth Wenig, file)
The report looked at nearly 580 children who were hospitalized with the coronavirus between early March and late July. Researchers found that hospitalization rates for children gradually increased over that timeline.
About 1 in 3 hospital children had to be admitted to an intensive care unit, according to the report – a rate similar to the ICU admission rate for hospital adults with the coronavirus.
However, the hospital level for children with COVID-19 is much lower than for adults. For children under the age of 18, the report found that the hospital rate was 8 in 100,000 and the highest for children under the age of 2. The rate is significantly higher for adults at around 165 in 100,000.
In general, Hispanic, Latino, and Black children were more likely to be hospitalized than white children – a trend that has also been documented in adults.
The report asked public health officials to monitor cases of pediatricians of the virus and said that mitigating mitigation measures in places that see meetings of children is necessary.
[ MAP: The Spread of Coronavirus ]“Strengthening prevention efforts is essential in community institutions that serve children, including child centers and schools,” the report said.
The CDC report comes as a stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s message about children and the coronavirus.
In a push to get schools to reopen, Trump has claimed that “young people are doing extraordinarily well” with the virus.
Facebook and Twitter took down a post this week shared by Trump for breaking their rules against spreading misinformation about coronavirus. In a Fox News interview, the president said children are “almost immune to this disease.”
The CDC published a second report on Friday detailing a rare but serious condition that some children get about two to four weeks after the onset of coronavirus.
The condition, called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children as MIS-C, has a long list of symptoms that include fever, rash, gastrointestinal problems, shock and inflammation. The symptoms are similar to toxic shock syndrome like Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory disease that typically affects children under 5 years of age.
As of the end of July, 570 possible cases of MIS-C had been reported to the CDC. More than 60% of patients were admitted to intensive care, and 10 patients died. All patients who were tested for the virus returned positive as having antibodies.
The report advised health care providers to continue to look for signs of the disease and report it to local and state health departments.
“Distinguishing patients with MIS-C from those with acute COVID-19 and other hyperinflammatory conditions is critical for early diagnosis and appropriate management,” the report said. “It is also critical to monitor for possible adverse events of a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes widely available.”
Copyright 2020 US News & World Report
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