“The number of cases among people under the age of 15 is rising sharply,” Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert-Koch-Institute of Disease Control and Prevention of Germany, said in a news conference with the Health Minister Jens Spahn on Friday.
There are indications that the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK is a driving factor behind the number of outbreaks in nurseries, Wiehler said.
The news comes just as schools and nurseries are starting to reopen in whole or in part in Germany – which is why Johannes Liese, head of pediatric infection and immunology at the university hospital of Würzburg, says it is not surprising with the increase in cases.
“Of course there are more emissions when we open schools and nurseries,” Liese told DW. It investigates the spread of COVID in pre-schools and nurseries. The results of his study are currently being evaluated.
“Until now the kindergarten population was virus free,” ge explains. But now, more and more young COVID-19 patients are appearing at the university hospital in Würzburg. Liese, just like Wieler, thinks the British variant is to blame.
Shortly after children in Germany fully returned to kindergarten, the number of COVID infections in young patients increased.
COVID-19 is common in adults
So far, after one year of coronavirus pandemic, the takeaway is that “children are taking COVID-19 so often and have milder cases,” said Markus Knuf, director of the children and adolescent clinic at Helios Dr. Horst Schmidt Klinik in the German capital of Wiesbaden and a board member of the German Society for Pediatric Disease (DGPI). The DGPI has introduced a registration system for children’s hospitals so that COVID cases in children and adolescents in need of hospitalization can be collected across the country.
“As of March 7, 2021, there were a total of 1,051 children who needed to be hospitalized,” Knuf told DW. “Only 5% of these young patients were admitted to the intensive care unit.”
Most of the youngest children are the hardest hit, he said. “Almost two-thirds of those patients are infants and toddlers.” About 30% have a pre-existing condition, Knuf said, for example respiratory diseases.
Even though not all hospitals in Germany participate and therefore not all children in the hospital with COVID are enrolled, one thing becomes clear when you look at the relatively low number of COVIDs. affected children: COVID usually affects adults. During the second wave in December 2020, 11,564 were admitted to hospital in one week. That’s more than 10 times the total number of children entered into the DGPI registration system to date.
Kawasaki-like syndrome is very rare
Most children leave hospital almost as well as new ones after battling the disease. “Despite what we see in adults, very few children are struggling with long-term effects,” Knuf said.
The DGPI website has a second registration system for severe cases of COVID, which can also occur in children. The “Inflammatory Multiatystem Syndrome” (PIMS) is characterized by a number of symptoms that result from inflammation. It appears similar to Kawasaki disease, which causes fever and is accompanied by inflammation in the arteries.
To date, only 223 children with the disease have been registered in Germany. Their prognosis is a bit darker. Less than half of those young patients leaving the hospital are fully recovered, according to Knuf. “About 10% is left with long-term effects.”
It is not yet clear what the impact of version B.1.1.7 will be. But experts say COVID-19 may not yet be an “adult” disease.
Lack of ‘scandalous’ protection
Knuf and Liese regret that vaccination is not allowed with a child on the horizon at this time.
“There are large groups of high-risk patients among children, such as preemies or children with trisomy 21,” Knuf said, adding that there are no prevention strategies to keep these patients safe. “I see that almost briskly!”
Children can be vaccinated against a number of illnesses such as measles and whooping cough, but so far COVID bullets are not in sight.
Liese wants a vaccine for children – not only to protect the individual child from a potentially serious course, but also to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He believes schools and nurseries should remain open, even if the bad news shared by the Robert-Koch Institute in a press conference on Friday could mean that close everything again soon.
“We need regular free tests in schools and adherence to hygiene rules,” Liese said, and accelerated research into finding vaccines that can be given to children sooner rather than later.