5000 Qld kids test positive for Covid over two week period

In just the last two weeks alone, more than 5000 Queensland children have been infected with Covid-19, with cases expected to surge as kids head back to school and daycare.

More than 5000 Queensland children have been infected with Covid-19 in the past two weeks, with cases expected to surge when kids head back to school and daycare in coming weeks.

Queensland Health Covid-19 case data, analysed by The Courier-Mail, revealed 1494 children aged 0 to 9, and 3015 kids aged 10 to 19 had tested positive between December 22 and January 5 – out of more than 33,000 cases.

The number of children being cared for in Queensland’s hospitals due to Covid-19 is unknown, with the health department saying rising case numbers meant there was no longer capacity to “provide detailed information”.

However, chief health officer Dr John Gerrard told parents they should not be “unduly concerned” about their children becoming infected.

But they should definitely get their children vaccinated, he said.

Paediatric immunisation expert Professor Robert Booy said “without a doubt” Covid-19 transmission would surge in Queensland once schools reopened, particularly due to the highly-infectious Omicron strain.

But the “great majority” of children will experience only mild symptoms of Covid-19.

And the rollout of the vaccine to children aged 5 to 11 from Monday will help slow the spread, and reduce the risk of severe illness, even with kids protected with just one dose prior to heading back to school.

“At least a quarter of children who catch Covid-19 have no symptoms at all, and half have very mild symptoms,” Prof Booy said.

“Only one per cent of kids that catch Covid-19 are managed in hospital, less than one in 1000 need intensive care and less than 1 in 10,000 die from Covid-19.”

Prof Booy said about 5 per cent of children have a major medical condition, which included immunosuppression, and this cohort needed to prioritised for vaccination.

Children aged five to 11 will join the vaccination rollout from January 10, receiving two smaller doses of the Pfizer vaccine compared to adults with an eight week gap in between instead of the usual three.

Queensland Health confirmed nearly 15,000 children aged under 12 are already booked in to get the jab.

Population estimates place the size of the cohort of children aged under 12 in the state at around 479,000.

Originally published as 5000 Qld kids test positive for Covid over two week period