NY Dept of Health warns of rise in child Covid hospitalisation

New York’s health department has warned of an increase in the number of children hospitalised with Covid-19 over the festive season.

A nurse prepares a dose of the Moderna vaccine at a vaccination site in the Bronx New York. Picture: Kena Betancur/AFP

The New York State Department of Health warned of an increase in children hospitalised with Covid-19, in a notice sent to doctors on Christmas Eve.

“NYSDOH is closely monitoring an upward trend in paediatric hospitalisation associated with Covid-19,” the notice read, according to the New York Post.

The jump in hospitalisation of children – who usually face very mild Covid-19 cases – is “concentrated in New York City and the surrounding greater metropolitan area,” according to the health advisory.

Paediatric admissions in the city have risen four-fold from the week starting December 5, 2021, to the week starting December 19, according to the bulletin, which did not quantify the actual number of children hospitalised.

A nurse prepares a dose of the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination site at South Bronx Educational Campus, in the Bronx New York on January 10, 2020. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP)

The DOH did not immediately return a message seeking the number of hospitalisation.

About half of the children hospitalised were under five, and therefore ineligible for the vaccine, according to the notice, which encouraged physicians to continue to promote social distancing and wearing “a well-fitting mask” among their younger patients.

In addition, the notice advises doctors to remind parents “not to assume a mild respiratory illness is a routine ‘cold’, and test for Covid-19”.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission