The variety of youngsters hospitalized with COVID-19 within the US is skyrocketing amid the omicron wave, with new admissions up 66 p.c within the final week and now previous the all-time document excessive for the pandemic.
The surge in pediatric hospitalizations comes amid a record-smashing vertical rise in general circumstances, which is being pushed by the ultratransmissible omicron coronavirus variant. Although preliminary information continues to hyperlink omicron waves to milder illness and fewer hospitalizations in contrast with earlier variants, it is nonetheless unclear if the variant is intrinsically much less virulent in individuals usually, and particularly youngsters, particularly.
Laboratory research proceed to point that omicron causes milder lung illness in rodents than earlier variants. However, gentle omicron waves in people have largely been seen in populations with excessive ranges of preexisting safety from prior COVID-19 an infection and/or vaccination. Such populations are anticipated to have much less extreme illness general.
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