COVID-19: Omicron cases, hospitalisations surging among kids under 5 in South Africa

The highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron has disproportionately put a large number of children under 5 years old in hospitals in South Africa, a top South African government medical adviser said Friday, according to several reports. He added, that the new strain with over 32 mutations concentrated in the protein spike was spreading much quicker than any previous variant of the coronavirus. At a virtual press conference, South Africa’s government adviser Waasila Jassat said that the Omicron variant had affected the Gauteng province that has the city of Johannesburg extremely worse manner. The province has been experiencing a rise in severe infections in children under the age of five. 

“In the third wave, we saw more admissions in young children under 5 and in teenagers, 15-19, and now, at the start of this fourth wave, we have seen quite a sharp increase across all age groups, but particularly in the under 5s,” Jassat, a public health specialist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases reportedly said.

100 kids aged under 5 hospitalised in one South African city 

Although it is too early to say whether children were particularly susceptible to the omicron strain as largely kids are unvaccinated as compared to adults. “It’s clear in Gauteng, the week-on-week increase we’re seeing in cases and admissions is higher than we’ve seen it before. We’ve seen quite a sharp increase [in hospital admissions] across all age groups but particularly in the under 5s,” South Africa’s government adviser told the press conference. 

The overall incidence rate from the Omicron infections in those under 5 is now second-highest, second only to those over 60, South Africa’s public health specialist said. “The trend that we’re seeing now, that is different to what we’ve seen before,” the specialist added, stressing that there is a significant spike in cases among the children. “We’ve always seen children not being very heavily affected by the COVID epidemic in the past, not having many admissions,” Gauteng told reporters, informing that the scenario with the Omicron variant has changed as kids are being hospitalised at an alarming rate.

In the city of Tshwane Metro, more than 100 kids aged under 5 were hospitalised with the Omicron infection in the first two weeks of the new fourth wave between November 14 to 27. In May 2020, less than 20 kids were hospitalised. As per Gauteng, the lack of vaccination of children may be a driver for increased hospital admissions. 

The seven-day average of cases in South Africa surged from just 332 on December 1 to 4,814 by December 3.

Image: AP