Covid-19 trend affecting NSW that experts say we should have been ‘bracing’ for

New figures show one group is being infected with Covid-19 at a much higher rate than anyone else, and an expert says we should have been prepared.

A leading epidemiologist says the disproportionate amount of children and teenagers who have contracted coronavirus during the state’s current wave is a trend “we should have been bracing ourselves for”.

Numbers published by NSW Health show over the last seven weeks, there have been more than double the amount of Covid-19 cases in patients aged zero to 19 years old than the next highest age bracket.

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, from the University of NSW, said the outbreak caused by the highly infectious Delta variant was mapping in a similar fashion to outbreaks in the UK earlier in the year with spikes in infections in teens and adolescents.

In NSW since June 29, there have been 2411 positive Covid-19 cases in those aged under 19 years, according to the government numbers.

The 20-24 years age bracket recorded the next highest number with 965, followed by 25-29 years (820) and 30-34 years (762).

The 65-69 years age group recorded the lowest with 166.

Eminent epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws says NSW should have been ‘bracing’ for higher rates of Covid-19 infection in younger people during the delta variant outbreak. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“It’s something that we should have been bracing ourselves for,” Professor McLaws said.

“Because England’s public health reports have demonstrated since April there was a shift from older adults down towards the young adults becoming the group that had most of the infection burden.

“Then from May onwards, something different started happening, something very concerning, that was to do with the five-year-olds to 17-year-olds.

“Now the five-year-olds to 24-year-olds, in that last round of community testing, carried the biggest burden in UK community tests and samples.”

NSW Health data has revealed that younger people are becoming infected with Covid-19 at much higher rates than the rest of the population. Credit: NSW Health via NCA NewsWire

Professor McLaws said it was yet to be proven why children and teens were becoming infected at higher rates; however, it was theorised that younger people had fewer A2 receptor sites in their respiratory tract.

“Delta patients have a thousand-times higher viral load in their respiratory tract and their exhalation, potentially, than we’ve ever seen before,” she said.

“Which means if a child is infected, the enormous number of viral particles, they will find fewer receptor sites.

“Given the viral load that a child may have breathed in, a particle can very stably sit on that cell and very rapidly enter the cell and cause infection.

“This answers why kids are not just a case of (passing on the virus to) a family cluster, they’re now potentially drivers of infection to other children and other adults.”

In an effort to thwart the spread, the Berejiklian government has implemented school restrictions.

Sydney has been plunged into lockdown because of the Delta variant. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Nikki Short.

The government on Saturday announced that all children, across primary and secondary schools, must be kept at home unless their parents are essential workers.

Schools remain open with limited teaching staff, while early childhood centres and other care services can also continue to operate.

As well, masks or face coverings are mandatory for all staff and all students in year 7 or above.

According to NSW Health data, since the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020 until July 31, there has been a zero per cent fatality rate in the 3369 Covid patients aged under 29.

However, Professor McLaws urged the government to do more to vaccinate younger adults and teens.

“We only hear about hospitalisation and death, but we will hear about children, sadly, becoming recovering patients suffering from long Covid symptoms, more than six weeks,” she said.

“And some of those symptoms can be very debilitating. They may not be life-threatening – things like fog brain, it’s unpredictable. Things like fatigue and depression, those often go together.

“And the question is why would you want to potentially risk giving a child any of those rather than preventing it.”