The Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has not spared children, especially those under the age of 5, who cannot be vaccinated. Kristin Marks, from the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), analyzed data from 2,562 patients under the age of 5 that were hospitalized in 14 US states between March 1, 2020, and January 31, 2022. The monthly hospital admission rate was 2.2 times higher during the Omicron outbreak (286 per month on average) than during the Delta outbreak (132). At the beginning of the pandemic, there were 75 hospitalizations per month (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, March 15). In the first week of January of this year, when Omicron was at its peak, the weekly hospitalization rate was 14.5 children per 100,000, five times higher than at the peak of the Delta wave (2.9 per 100,000) in the second week of September 2021.
