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. 2022 Feb 18;71(7):271-278.
doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7107e4.

Hospitalizations of Children and Adolescents with Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19 - COVID-NET, 14 States, July 2021-January 2022

Kristin J Marks, Michael Whitaker, Onika Anglin, Jennifer Milucky, Kadam Patel, Huong Pham, Shua J Chai, Pam Daily Kirley, Isaac Armistead, Sarah McLafferty, James Meek, Kimberly Yousey-Hindes, Evan J Anderson, Kyle P Openo, Andy Weigel, Justin Henderson, Val Tellez Nunez, Kathryn Como-Sabetti, Ruth Lynfield, Susan L Ropp, Chad Smelser, Grant R Barney, Alison Muse, Nancy M Bennett, Sophrena Bushey, Laurie M Billing, Eli Shiltz, Nasreen Abdullah, Melissa Sutton, William Schaffner, H Keipp Talbot, Ryan Chatelain, Andrea George, Christopher A Taylor, Meredith L McMorrow, Cria G Perrine, Fiona P Havers; COVID-NET Surveillance Team
Collaborators, Affiliations

Hospitalizations of Children and Adolescents with Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19 - COVID-NET, 14 States, July 2021-January 2022

Kristin J Marks et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. .

Abstract

The first U.S. case of COVID-19 attributed to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) was reported on December 1, 2021 (1), and by the week ending December 25, 2021, Omicron was the predominant circulating variant in the United States.* Although COVID-19-associated hospitalizations are more frequent among adults,† COVID-19 can lead to severe outcomes in children and adolescents (2). This report analyzes data from the Coronavirus Disease 19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET)§ to describe COVID-19-associated hospitalizations among U.S. children (aged 0-11 years) and adolescents (aged 12-17 years) during periods of Delta (July 1-December 18, 2021) and Omicron (December 19, 2021-January 22, 2022) predominance. During the Delta- and Omicron-predominant periods, rates of weekly COVID-19-associated hospitalizations per 100,000 children and adolescents peaked during the weeks ending September 11, 2021, and January 8, 2022, respectively. The Omicron variant peak (7.1 per 100,000) was four times that of the Delta variant peak (1.8), with the largest increase observed among children aged 0-4 years. During December 2021, the monthly hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adolescents aged 12-17 years (23.5) was six times that among fully vaccinated adolescents (3.8). Strategies to prevent COVID-19 among children and adolescents, including vaccination of eligible persons, are critical.*.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. Evan J. Anderson reports grants from Pfizer, Merck, PaxVax, Micron, Sanofi-Pasteur, Janssen, MedImmune, and GlaxoSmithKline; personal fees from Pfizer, Medscape, Kentucky Bioprocessing, Inc., Sanofi-Pasteur, and Janssen, outside the submitted work; and institutional funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct clinical trials of Moderna and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines. Laurie M. Billing, Eli Shiltz, Andy Weigel, Justin Henderson, Val Tellez Nunez, and Andrea George report grants from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists during the conduct of the study. Ruth Lynfield reports editorial payments from the American Academy of Pediatrics Red Book (Committee on Infectious Diseases), which were donated to the Minnesota Department of Health. No other potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Figures

FIGURE
FIGURE
Weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among children and adolescents aged 0–17 years, by age group — COVID-NET, 14 states, July 3, 2021–January 22, 2022 Abbreviation: COVID-NET = Coronavirus Disease 2019–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network.
 Number of patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19–associated hospitalizations per 100,000 population; rates are subject to change as additional data are reported. † COVID-NET sites are in the following 14 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah. Starting the week ending December 4, 2021, Maryland data are removed from weekly rate calculations.
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References

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Supplementary concepts