Faced with the swift spread of the Omicron variant in France, the government is to meet this Monday December 27 for a new health defense council. Their goal? Stopping the 5th wave and curbing the spread of Omicron in France.
This Sunday December 26, the Le Journal du Dimanche issued a column signed by about fifty health professionals. They all claim for measures to stop the epidemic at school, and recommend to postpone school start. “Since early November, over 300,000 children and adolescents have tested positive to Covid-19. (…) Children’s hospitalizations in conventional services and intensive cares have exceeded the peaks of all the previous waves, including over 800 children under 10 and 300 adolescents aged 10 to 19 at the hospital in six weeks, and data keep increasing”, they write.
And Omicron is likely to worsen the situation even more because of its high transmissibility. But what do we know exactly about the impact of Omicron on children? Many questions remain unanswered. But a British doctor, David Lloyd, recently sounded the alarm about an “unusual” symptom only spotted in the youngest. According to him, consulting for Sky News TV channel, 15% of children infected with Omicron suffer from cutaneous rashes. “We’ve always had a small cohort of patients with COVID who are getting funny rashes, but up to 15 percent of the Omicron children are getting an unusual rash”, he explained on Sky News.
“Up to 15 percent of the Omicron children are getting a rash.”
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 7, 2021
GP Dr David Lloyd says there are some differences in the symptoms of children with the Omicron variant when compared to adults.
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In addition to these spots, children can also suffer from several other symptoms considered as more classic, and also seen in adults such as headaches and extreme fatigue.
For the record, New York state health authorities in the U.S. recently explained they have noticed an “upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with COVID-19”. “In New York City, the Department identified four-fold increases in COVID-19 hospital admissions” between December 5 and 19th, a release issued on December 24 reads, adding half of these admissions involve children under 5 years of age, and therefore non-vaccinated children.
