PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The spike in COVID-19 cases across the country is affecting a very young age group.
New government data shows that COVID-19 hospitalizations for children under five years old are at the highest level since the pandemic began.
"This is a highly contagious virus, the omicron variant, and it sought out the susceptible group," said Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the vaccine education center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, referring to people who are either unvaccinated or under-vaccinated.
"At Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, when we see children that are admitted to the hospital or worse, admitted to the ICU, they are invariably unvaccinated."
That includes children under five, who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. "I think for the next few weeks, it's going to be a tough time for children less than five years old," he warned.
"I think it's unlikely that we're going to have a vaccine for the less than five-year-old anytime soon," added Offit, "so what you have to do for those children is everything else you can do to protect them, which is to make sure that everybody around them who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, that the people they come in contact with are masked or vaccinated until we get a vaccine for that age group."
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"It makes me very sad for all the parents who have to deal with something like this," said Becky Guenther of Gladwyne. She said as a teacher, she sympathizes with the difficult decisions some parents have to make right now.
"I think everyone's between a rock and a hard place," she said. "And I wouldn't want to be a decision-maker. I think the key here is flexibility and openness, and consideration for everybody's position."
Offit said of those difficult decisions, "It's hard to decide whether to send them to daycare, knowing that there's going to be a bunch of children there that are unvaccinated, knowing that there may be even teachers there who are unvaccinated."
Marty Litwer of Bala Cynwyd said in light of the new data released, he thinks about his grandson.
"I get that people have to be socialized as much of anything and people have to work, but that's where many of the kids get sick," he shared.
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Marlene Lewis of Wynnefield said she has seen the impact of pediatric COVID-19.
"I have a friend right now with a four-month-old that just tested positive for COVID," she described. "She's vaccinated and her older kids can wear a mask, But the babies can't."
But Offit pointed out this wave won't last forever.
"I think that this will settle down by early spring and then summer and then will come back to some extent next winter," he predicted, "but not nearly to the extent that it was either last winter or this winter."