An unnamed 15-month-old toddler has died of COVID-19, according to Los Angeles County.
Across the country, the number of cases among children is increasing. As of Wednesday, there were 91 deaths in Los Angeles County as a result of COVID-19, making it the second-highest daily death toll during the Omicron surge.
One of the victims was a 15-month-old boy.
It is unclear if the boy suffered from any underlying health conditions, according to Newsweek.
In California’s southwest Riverside County, an infant died of COVID-19 just last week.
A health official announced the infant was less than one year old to become the county’s youngest death from the virus.
The high contagiousness of the Omicron variant of COVID has caused a spike in cases among children across the country. The effect of the variant on young children is still unclear.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, nearly 1,151,000 child cases were reported over the past week.
That’s five times compared to the number of children reported during the COVID-19 epidemic of winter 2021.
However, a new study released last week found that the Omicron variant caused fewer severe symptoms than the Delta variant in children.
Nearly 80,000 U.S. children under the age of five with their first infection were reviewed in the study.
According to Reuters, Comparing children infected during the Omicron surge to children infected during the Delta surge in 2021, researchers found that children infected during the Omicron surge had a 29 percent lower risk of emergency room visits, 67 percent less likelihood of hospitalization, 68 percent less likelihood of needing intensive care, and 71 percent less likelihood of needing a ventilator.
Researchers said that due to the fact that so many children have been infected with Omicron, even though Omicron symptoms might be milder in young children, the total number of children affected by severe symptoms during the Omicron and Delta surges might actually be the same.
Even though young children’s Omicron symptoms tend to be milder, an increasing number of them may also develop more serious symptoms.
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Infectious disease specialist Dr. Richard Malley at Boston Children’s Hospital said this is because more and more kids are getting sick, told CNN.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published COVID case data by age.
Nevertheless, its data encompass all children from 0 to 17 years of age.
In this regard, it is difficult to determine how many infants and toddlers have been infected, hospitalized or have died as a result of COVID-19.
Mayo Clinic reports that COVID-19 could pose a greater risk to infants younger than 1 than older children.
It is due to the fact that their immunity systems haven’t fully developed and because of their smaller breathing passageways, they are more likely to develop respiratory infections.
Children over the age of five should receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CDC suggestion.