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Writer's pictureLong Covid Kids

Child COVID-19 Cases, Long Covid, Hospital Admissions & Deaths 19th December 2021

Updated: Feb 18, 2022

  • UK Government Dashboard

  • UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

  • Office for National Statistics (ONS)









Infections in school aged children


  • Cases are higher and rose faster in households with children

  • Case numbers do not include children who have been re-infected (Except Wales)






By Nation



England 20.2% of new English cases are in children

Scotland 23.1% of new Scottish cases are in children

Wales 22.5% of new Welsh cases are in children

NI 31.6% of new NI cases are in children


17th December 2021





Child Covid-19 Hospital Admissions

Excludes RSV which uses a separate test


  • Admissions over 1,000 for the 4th month in a row, and rising again

  • 1 in 198 infected children have been admitted to hospital since the pandemic began

  • Government research shows that 80% of admissions are directly due to Covid-19 and 60% of those have no underlaying conditions.

  • COVID-19 is being taken into hospitals and GP surgeries by children


The Delta wave has already caused more child Covid-19 hospital admissions that the whole of the Alpha wave. In fact it took just 148 days to exceed alpha's total admissions. According to government data 60% of child Covid hospital admissions had no underlaying conditions.


Unprecedented levels of Covid infection in children has also caused a 30% increase in Long Covid in one month and we have yet to see the ONS figure for children following return to school in September.



Wave 2

1 Sept 2020 to 17 May 2021 (259 days)

4 357 children hospitalised with Covid



Wave 3

18th May 2021 to date (156 days so far)

4 738 children hospitalised with Covid


381 more children hospitalised in 103 fewer days









Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome


  • These hospital admissions are IN ADDITION to COVID-19 admissions

  • These children are usually admitted after the 14-day testing cut-off

  • There were 720 PIMs admissions to the end of February 2021



Almost half of children in hospital, and a third with the late severe complication of PIMS-TS, had no underlaying health conditions



A quarter of children hospitalised for COVID-19 experience persistent symptoms on average 8.5 months after hospitalisation





Paediatric Deaths



Click image to read article regarding the misinformation reported in the Smith et al Nature Medicine paper on child deaths in England up to February 2021. Findings from this paper have been widely reported in mainstream media which have stated "only 6 healthy children" have died from Covid-19. This is not true, as evidenced, and using population rates is misleading.


Led by Tom Lawton with input from three of our own Long Covid Kids supporters and experts, Dr Deepti Gurdasani, Dr Stephen Griffin and LCK Data Analyst, James Neill.







  • 120 UK paediatric COVID-19 deaths (UKHSA)

  • 3.6% of all 5-19 year old deaths in 2021 have involved Covid-19

  • 1 in 22 deaths of 5-19 year olds involved Covid-19 (ONS)

  • Covid-19 is a top 5 cause of death for 10-19 year olds in 2021 (ONS)

  • 88% of the child deaths in wave 3 have had CV19 as the underlaying cause of death, (not due to pre-existing conditions. ONS)

  • 7 child deaths in one week (ONS)





Vaccines Work






Long Covid in Children


In the UK we do not yet count Long Covid. We therefore, rely on estimates from research and lived experience. Different studies have different estimates due to use of different symptoms, number of symptoms, symptom durations, case ascertainments, population representativeness, and definitions of relapsing and remitting symptoms. Some studies have a control group and others do not. There is now a World Health Organisation agreed definition for Long Covid in adults. Long Covid Kids are participating in the process for a definition for children as part of the CLOCK study.



Sadly Mainstream media have long minimised Long Covid and usually choose the lowest prevalence figure published despite experts raising concern about the methodology gaps used in the research. Nevertheless, a small percentage of a large number should raise concerns amongst all.



Children are not supposed to become ill and die.



United States of America


“One year after becoming ill w/ the coronavirus, nearly half of patients in a large study were still experiencing at least one lingering health symptom”



The CDC stated nearly half of infected children were experiencing Long Covid, and early research stated 43%.





Latest Long Covid Figures




1+ month following infection has risen to 77 000 children


3+ months 36 000 children


12+ months 14 000 children




1 in 7 children (14%) infected with COVID-19 suffer Long Covid



Blogs








Long Covid in Teaching & Education Staff






Monthly Child Covid Summary


Month Cases Admissions Deaths Long Covid

0-19 yrs 0-17 yrs 0-19 yrs 28-day

July 271,344 1,153 5 34,000

August 203,122 1,229 7 38,000

September 328,697 1,078 10 53,000

October 442,841 1,228 12 69,000

November 372,589 1,087 6 77,000


ONS

UK Dashboard





Interactive Dashboard with Children's Covid-19 Data


By Antonio Caramia

Click image to enter site

Image dated 17th December 2021. 0-5 year old Covid-19 Hospital Admissions









When community COVID-19 transmission is high:


Education disruption occurs;

Child Covid hospital admissions rise;

The number of children suffering Long Covid/chronic illness increases;

More children die


 


Sources and Contact Details

Our Charity Provides Facts



Admissions


Cases


Deaths





Data Analysis, graphs and statistics


Data

Collated and reported by Ellie Tigress

Contact Ellie @TigressEllie


Interactive dashboard and stats

By Antonio Caramia.

Contact Antonio @Antonio_Caramia


 

LongCovidKids.org is a UK based international charity supporting and advocating for families, children and young people living with Long Covid. Our story started with a short film on the long-lasting symptoms of Covid in children.


Each Sunday we send out a newsletter providing a weekly round-up of statistics, the latest reports in the media, current research, and LCK news. Read previous issues and SIGN UP





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