Children COVID-19 hospitalizations spike across US since arrival of omicron variant

The number of children across the U.S. becoming infected with COVID-19 has sharply increased since the arrival of the virus' omicron variant, with New York having issued an urgent advisory Christmas Eve to pediatricians imploring them to ensure their young patients are vaccinated. 

"We are alerting New Yorkers to this recent striking increase in pediatric COVID-19 admissions so that pediatricians, parents and guardians can take urgent action to protect our youngest New Yorkers," Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett said in a statement.

Hospitalizations in children have increased four-fold in New York over roughly the past three weeks, according to local TV station NBC-4.

The station also reports more than 20,000 people a day in the state are being infected – with the daily number of new COVID hospitalizations increasing over 30% a day in New York City alone. The hospitalization increase in the city since Dec. 5 is four fold for those 18 and younger, the TV station also reports.

Over the same period, total New York City COVID hospitalizations grew 170%, suggesting that younger kids are now getting much sicker at a higher rate.

About half of the hospitalizations are reportedly for children younger than 5, who are not eligible to be vaccinated.

About 800 children have been admitted nearly every day this week, with those in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas also hit particularly hard, according to The Washington Post. 

As of Thursday, 1,987 confirmed or suspected pediatric COVID patients across the country had been hospitalized  – a 31% increase in 10 days, according to an analysis by The Post. 

An officer for Akron Children’s Hospital, in Ohio, told the newspaper that the positivity rate has been so high that "we don’t know the ramifications."

As of Wednesday, the hospital had admitted several kids under 5, including two confirmed cases in infants and two suspected cases in nursery-age children, but most of the other 11 were teens.

The officer said the numbers suggest virus-infected children progress quicker than adults to severe illness.