NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- New York state’s health department warned of a “startling” increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations among children, particularly those who are unvaccinated.
The recent increases are concentrated in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area, where the highly contagious omicron variant was first detected in the state and is spreading rapidly, officials said in a health advisory Friday.
In New York City this month, there has been a four-fold increase in COVID-19 hospital admissions for children under 18.
Over the past week, none of the kids between 5 and 11 years old who were admitted to a hospital for COVID-19 was fully vaccinated, officials warned. And only one-fourth of 12- to 17-year-olds hospitalized were fully vaccinated.
Health officials said the “startling trends” underscored the importance of protecting children from COVID-19 by getting all eligible kids 5 years and older fully vaccinated.
“The risks of COVID-19 for children are real,” said Dr. Mary Bassett, the state’s acting health commissioner, in a statement. “We are alerting New Yorkers to this recent striking increase in pediatric COVID-19 admissions so that pediatricians, parents and guardians can take urgent action to protect our youngest New Yorkers.”
Bassett said the best way to protect children under 5 years old, who are ineligible for the vaccine, is by “making sure all of those around them have protection through vaccination, boosters, mask-wearing, avoiding crowds and testing.”
Health officials said they’re continuing to monitor the rise in pediatric hospitalizations.
As of Dec. 24, 27% of 5- to 11-year-olds in the state had received at least one vaccine dose, while 16% were fully vaccinated.
For adolescents between 12 to 17 years old, 71.7% had received at least one vaccine dose and 64.1% were fully vaccinated.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is available to people 5 to 15 under an emergency authorization, while the same vaccine is fully approved for those 16 and older.
New York state again saw a record number of COVID-19 cases on Friday, with over 44,000 reported.
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