In the United States, the surge in COVID-19 cases promoted by omicron has brought the number of hospitalized children close to a record number. Experts lament that most young people have not been vaccinated.

“It’s really heartbreaking,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Last year was hard enough, but now you know you have a way to stop this.”

According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during the week from December 21 to 27, an average of 334 children aged 17 and under were admitted to the hospital every day due to the coronavirus, an increase of 58% from the previous week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the last peak in the pandemic was in early September, when children were hospitalized an average of 342 people a day.

Even more hopeful is that children continue to account for a small portion of the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19: in the same week of December, an average of more than 9,400 people of all ages were admitted every day. Many doctors say that the young people who come in now seem to be less sick than the children seen during the summer delta surge.

CDC data shows that about 14% of children are fully protected two months after the vaccine is approved for children aged 5 to 11 years. The rate of children aged 12 to 17 is even higher, about 53%.

Dr. Albert Ko, professor of epidemiology and infectious disease at the Yale School of Public Health, said that in many cases, the problem is timing. He said that young children were not approved for the vaccine until November, and many people are only now receiving the second dose of the vaccine.

Offit said that none of the eligible children who were treated in his hospital about a week ago had not been vaccinated, although two-thirds of children had the underlying disease that put them at risk—chronic lung disease or more. Common obesity. Only one person under the age of 5 was vaccinated.

The scene is heartbreaking.

“They have trouble breathing, coughing, coughing, coughing,” Offfit said. “A few people were sent to the ICU for sedation. We put the accessory connected to the ventilator in their throat, and the parents were crying.”

He said that neither parents nor siblings were vaccinated.

He said that the next four to six weeks will be difficult, “This is a virus that thrives in winter.”

Aria Shapiro, 6 years old, spent her 12th day at Phoenix Children’s Hospital on Thursday. After receiving the first dose of vaccine on December 17, she tested positive for COVID-19.

Aria was considered “medically vulnerable” because of epilepsy. She had seizures for a long time in the hospital and had to insert a breathing tube into her throat at one time, although she later improved.

Her mother Sarah Shapiro said: “In order to prevent her from contracting the new coronavirus, we spent two years of life and finally chose the vaccine, and one thing we didn’t want to happen happened.” Her body did not have enough time to produce antibodies. She did eventually contract the new coronavirus.”

Overall, the number of new COVID-19 cases among Americans of all ages has soared to the highest level ever recorded: an average of 300,000 cases per day, 2 1/2 times the number two weeks ago. According to the CDC, the highly contagious omicron accounted for 59% of new cases last week.

Nonetheless, there are early signs that this variant causes less disease than the previous version, and the combination of vaccine and booster seems to protect people from its worst effects.

Health officials say that in California, 80 children with COVID-19 were admitted to the hospital during the week of December 20-26, compared with 50 in the last week of November.

Seattle Children’s Hospital also reported that the number of children admitted in the past week has increased. Although their condition is not as severe as those of those who were hospitalized in the summer, Dr. John McGuire warned that it is still in the early stages of the omicron wave, and the full impact will become apparent in the next few weeks.

New York health authorities also sounded the alarm.

From December 5 to December 24, the number of children admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 in New York City increased from 22 to 109 each week. Across New York State, this number has increased from 70 to 184. Overall, nearly 5,000 New Yorkers were hospitalized due to COVID-19.

“The quadruple growth worries everyone, but this is only a small part,” Ko said of the New York City data. “The risk of children being hospitalized is very low, but those who are hospitalized are not vaccinated.”

Dr. Al Sacchetti, Director of Emergency Services at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey, also said that the vaccinated children are responding very well to the omicron epidemic.

“This has a big impact on how these children endure the disease, especially if the children have some medical problems,” he said.

It turns out that COVID-19 deaths are rare among children during the pandemic. According to data reported to the American Academy of Pediatrics, as of last week, 721 people in the United States had died of the disease. The total death toll in the United States exceeds 800,000.

The pediatric team said that during the week of December 16-23, nearly 199,000 cases of COVID-19 in children were reported. This accounts for approximately 20% of the total number of more than 950,000 cases recorded that week.

Dr. Jason Turk, a pediatrician in northern Texas, said that although many of these children will recover at home, they may come into contact with other people at greater risk. He said that he took care of a 10-year-old boy with COVID-19. His condition was well controlled, but his father fell ill.

“The death of the parents is devastating, but in this case, the toxic stress of young people is difficult to measure,” he said.