Covid-19: Omicron variant is linked to steep rise in hospital admissions of very young children

Hospital admissions of children under 1 year old have risen steeply, coinciding with transmission of the omicron variant, show preliminary data presented to the government’s SAGE committee.1

The data, from the Covid-19 Clinical Information Network (CO-CIN) study, show that the proportion of children admitted to hospital with covid-19 who were aged under 1 was 42.2% in the four week period studied (14 December 2021 to 12 January 2022), much higher than earlier in the pandemic.

Under 1s made up 32.9% of children admitted during the first wave (January to August 2020), 30.4% in the second wave (September 2020 to April 2021), and 30.2% when delta was the most prevalent variant (May 2021 to 13 December 2021).

The alpha and delta variants …