The Omicron Tsunami has hit the USA, causing many children to become infected. If most of the cases are detected during the tracing tests, a growing number are also hospitalized, causing concern to the authorities.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued an alert on Tuesday, January 4. "Cases of Covid-19 in American children have reached the highest number of cases ever reported since the beginning of the pandemic," it warned via a statement published on its website.
 As of the beginning of 2022, data collected by the professional association, 325,340 cases were recorded during the week of December 23, compared to 198,551 cases during the previous week. And although severe forms of Covid are still rare in young children, the large number of new cases is worrying doctors.

NBC News reported data and at least nine states reported record numbers of Covid-related pediatric hospitalizations: Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the nation's capital, Washington. At Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, the number of pediatric hospitalizations, at nearly 70 patients, reportedly exceeded the peak of patients during the Delta variant wave this summer.
 This spike is partly related to the characteristics of the Omicron variant, which is known to be more contagious. "More children are infected with this highly transmissible virus, and with that, there will naturally be more hospitalizations of children," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House advisor on the health crisis, during a press briefing last week.

Many specialists and doctors are afraid that the number of serious cases, which are still very low, will increase during the month of January. "I think a lot of parents are relying on the idea that if their child is healthy, it's very unlikely that he or she will get sick from Covid. That's not true," Amy Edwards, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital University Hospital in Cleveland, told NBC News.
 On the other hand, pediatricians also recalled that many young people were hospitalized and diagnosed positively with Covid during their hospitalization. This is what pediatric surgeon Chethan Sathya noted in a tweet: "I was on call at New York Children's Hospital this weekend, and literally every child we operate on or see is positive for COVID.

It's an indisputable fact that was later echoed by Dr. Fauci. "If you look at the children who are hospitalized, many of them are hospitalized with COVID, rather than because of COVID...if a child comes into the hospital, they are automatically tested for COVID and they are counted as an individual hospitalized for COVID," he clarified at a press briefing on December 31.
 There is also an explanation, this wave of hospitalizations would also be caused by a lower rate of vaccination in this population. At the end of December, less than 15% of 5-11-year-olds and just over 50% of 12-17-year-olds were fully vaccinated. In the United States, however, vaccination has been authorized for 12-15-year-olds since May 2021, and this age group has even been eligible for a booster dose since January 3.