By Nathalie Pearson
LCK Founding Member and COO
6th November 2021
With thanks to:
Ellie Tigress.
Antonio Caramia.
Independent SAGE for bringing the general public regular, balanced information updates
When community COVID-19 transmission is high
Education disruption occurs
Child Covid hospital admissions rise
The number of children suffering Long Covid/chronic illness increases
More children die
Infections in school aged children
"It is clear that schools are driving transmission substantially"
"This is driving up infections in more vulnerable groups"
"There is a clear picture of the impact of school holidays on transmission among children and in the community" (Dr D Gurdasini)
Highest prevalence of all ages, is in primary and secondary school aged children
Cases are higher and rose faster in households with children
By Nation
England 28.9% of new English cases are in children
NI 31.7% of new NI cases are in children
Wales 28.1% of new Welsh cases are in children
Scotland 33.1% of new Scottish cases are in children
@TigressEllie
Child Covid Hospital Admissions
Excludes RSV which uses a separate test
Admissions over 1000 for the 4th month in a row
1 in 171 infected children have been admitted to hospital since the pandemic began
Government research shows that 80% of admissions are directly due to Covid and 60% of those have no underlaying conditions.
COVID-19 is being taken into hospitals and GP surgeries by children
The delta wave has already caused more child Covid hospital admissions that the whole of the alpha wave. In fact it took just 148 days to exceed alpha's total admissions. According to government data 60% of child Covid hospital admissions had no underlaying conditions.
Unprecedented levels of Covid infection in children has also caused a 40% increase in Long Covid and we have yet to see the ONS figure for children following return to school in September.
Wave 2
1 Sept 2020 to 17 May 2021 (259 days)
4 357 children hospitalised with Covid
Wave 3
18th May 2021 to date (156 days so far)
4 738 children hospitalised with Covid
381 more children hospitalised in 103 fewer days
Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome
These hospital admissions are IN ADDITION to COVID admissions
These children are usually admitted after the 14-day testing cut-off
There were 720 PIMs admissions to the end of February 2021
@TigressEllie
Almost half of children in hospital, and a third with the late severe complication of PIMS-TS, had no underlaying health conditions
A quarter of children hospitalised for COVID-19 experience persistent symptoms on average 8.5 months after hospitalisation
Paediatric Deaths
108 UK paediatric COVID-19 deaths
30 of these are since the Autumn school term began @tigressellie
3.3% of all deaths in 10-19 year olds involved Covid. That is doubled from 2020
This puts Covid as a top 5 cause of death for this age group in 2021
Long Covid in Children
In the UK we do not yet count Long Covid. We therefore, rely on estimates from research and lived experience. Different studies have different estimates due to use of different symptoms, number of symptoms, symptom durations, case ascertainments, population representativeness, and definitions of relapsing and remitting symptoms. Some studies have a control group and others do not. There is now a World Health Organisation agreed definition for Long Covid in adults. Long Covid Kids are participating in the process for a definition for children as part of the CLOCK study.
Sadly Mainstream media have long minimised Long Covid and usually choose the lowest prevalence figure published despite experts raising concern about the methodology gaps used in the research. Nevertheless, a small percentage of a large number should raise concerns amongst all.
Children are not supposed to become ill and die.
United States of America
“One year after becoming ill w/ the coronavirus, nearly half of patients in a large new study were still experiencing at least one lingering health symptom”
The CDC stated nearly half of infected children were experiencing Long Covid, and early research stated 43%.
16.5% of all USA cases are in children, trending upwards
24 000 children are in hospital due to Covid
42% of children are fully vaccinated in the 12-15 year old bracket
700 children have died
Latest Long Covid Figures
Office for National Statistics (ONS) Ages 2-16, 4th Nov 21
1 month following infection has risen to 69 000 children
3 months 33 000 children
12 months 10 000 children
1 in 7 children (14%) infected with COVID-19 suffer Long Covid
Blogs
Monthly Child Covid Summary
Month Cases Admissions Deaths Long Covid
0-19 yrs 0-17 yrs 0-19 yrs 28-day
July 271,356 1,153 5 34,000
August 203,135 1,229 7 38,000
September 328,552 1,118 10 53,000
Long Covid ONS
UK Dashboard
New Interactive Dashboard with Children's Covid Data
By Antonio Caramia
Click image to link to site
Admissions
Cases
Deaths
For further details and to discuss graphs/stats contact James on Twitter @jneill
For further details and to discuss data collation/stats contact Ellie on Twitter @TigressEllie
For further details and to discuss the interactive dashboard contact Antonio and Ellie on Twitter @Antonio_Caramia @TigressEllie
LongCovidKids.org is a UK based international charity supporting and advocating for families, children and young people living with Long Covid. Our story started with a short film on the long-lasting symptoms of Covid in children.
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