29% decrease in child hospitalizations from 2019 to 2020.
QUICK FACTS:
- Hospitalizations among children during the COVID-19 pandemic declined, according to a study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Epoch Times reports.
- But the study also showed that those who were hospitalized were mostly due to the coronavirus.
- The study diagnosed children up to the age of 17 years, splitting them into three groups of 0–4, 5–11, and 12–17 years.
- “Compared with 2019, overall pediatric emergency department visits decreased by 51 percent, 22 percent, and 23 percent during 2020, 2021, and January 2022, respectively,” according to the Feb 18 report.
- Pediatric emergency department visits “declined sharply” during 2020 as compared to 2019. During January 2021 and January 2022, emergency department visits remained lower when compared to the period prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated already high mental health concerns among children, the report added.
WHAT ELSE THE REPORT SAID:
- “COVID-19 visits predominated across all pediatric ages; visits for other respiratory illnesses mostly declined. Number and proportion of visits increased for certain injuries (e.g., firearm injuries, self-harm, and drug poisonings), some chronic diseases, and behavioral health concerns, with variations by age group.”
- “COVID-19-associated visits, and those for exposure and screening for infectious disease, were the top two visit diagnoses for children of all age groups during January 2022,” the report said.
BACKGROUND:
- The report speculates that the fall in emergency department visits might be due to the “parents’ and caregivers’ risk perception and avoidance of [emergency departments] or health care, among other reasons,” Epoch Times reports.
- The research suggests that COVID-19 preventive measures may have played a role in bringing down the transmission of other respiratory viruses as the proportion of visits for non-COVID-19 respiratory illnesses among the three age groups declined.
- Concerns about higher COVID-19 hospital admissions have been refuted by some experts, for example, in December, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House pandemic adviser, stated that COVID-19 cases among children were being overcounted at hospitals as kids are automatically tested when they are admitted.
- And Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, pointed out that most kids were not being hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection, but, when they visited hospitals for some other health issues, they ended up being diagnosed as COVID-19-positive during tests.
