Does Omicron pose higher risks for kids below 5 years?

New Delhi, Dec 06: As the "highly transmissible" Omicron variant of coronavirus rages through South Africa, a large number of infections are being reported in children under 5 years of age. The very trend is creating panic as scientists are still not sure of how this new virus may impact the toddlers.

What is more worrying is that more kids below five are being hospitalised, along with higher positivity rates among children aged 10-14, unlike the other waves which had not caused any serious illness among children.

"A new trend in this wave is the increase in hospitalisation of children under five," Wassila Jassat, public health specialist at the NICD was quoted as saying.

"The incidence in those under-fives is now second-highest, and second only to the incidence in those over 60," she told a news conference.

Why are children being affected?

There are various reasons why this particular variant maybe causing a little more illness among children than Delta or even the original viruses.

One is that children under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines in South Africa.

Doctors have reported anecdotally that both children and parents testing positive have not been vaccinated.

No evidence to prove Omicron severely affecting kids

Though higher infections are indeed being reported amongst children, there is not enough evidence to prove that they are getting seriously affected and people need not panic yet.

Even amid emergence of new variants like Omircron, vaccination remains one of the strongest pillars of protection against disease and infection.

It is important to highlight that Omicron has been declared 'variant of concern' (VoC) based on the observed mutations, their predicted features of increased transmission and immune evasion, and preliminary evidence of detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, such as increased reinfections.

The definitive evidence for increased remission and immune evasion is awaited, according to the WHO.