State report: Kids hospitalized at greater rate during first month of Omicron surge

This morning, new information shows that hospital admissions for children with COVID-19 increased sevenfold, or 700%, since December.
Although the state is showing a downward trend for its seven-day positivity rate – a new report from the state Department of Health shows that the most recent surge impacted kids the most.
According to the state Department of Health report, children were admitted to hospitals more than the general population during the first month of the Omicron surge.
From Dec. 5.-11 and Jan. 2-8, the hospitalizations in children increased 700%. On Long island and in the Mid-Hudson region, the number went up to 900%.
For all other age groups combined, it was 300% when it comes to hospitalizations during the first moth of surge.
In this report, the state looked for trends and one of those that stood out was that among the children brought into the hospital and admitted – the vaccination rate was very low.
About 90% of the children hospitalized ages 5-11 were unvaccinated, and 61% were unvaccinated among children ages 12-18.
The recommendation from report is to continue with mask wearing and children should get vaccinated to protect them.