Health ministry sounds alarm as over 100,000 children infected with Covid this year

The health ministry today sounded the alarm over the spread of Covid-19 among children, as it revealed that more than 100,000 paediatric cases had been recorded so far this year.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said a total of 119,719 children below the age of 12 had contracted Covid-19 from January to March, with 50,826 infected from January to mid-February alone.

Of the total number of child infections recorded in the first quarter, 37,485 (31.31%) were in Category One, 81,849 (68.37%) in Category Two, 274 (0.23%) in Category Three, 86 (0.07%) in Category Four, and 25 (0.02%) in Category Five.

Khairy also referred to a table showing that the number of paediatric Covid-19 cases involving children 11 and below rose from 7,730 in 2020 to 379,245 in 2021.

“The use of beds for paediatric patients below the age of 12 from January 2022 to the end of February 2022 also showed a significant increase,” he said.

The admission rate of children to paediatric intensive care units (PICU) meanwhile rose 94% for those in Category Three and above, with an increase of 200% for Category Four and 125% for Category Five.

From June 2020 to December 2021, a total of 174 children below the age of 18 had experienced MIS-C or multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, a condition where inflamation occurs in the internal organs especially the heart, lungs and brain.

Seven cases or 4% of child deaths so far have been caused by MIS-C following a diagnosis of Covid-19.

Khairy said children were also at risk of developing long Covid.

“The limited data we have at this time shows that the risk of this is lower compared to that of adults, but for now, not much is known about the long-term effects of long Covid for children,” he added.

The push to vaccinate children below the age of 12 through the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) began on Feb 3.

As of yesterday, 1,060,063 or 29.9% of children in that age bracket had received a first dose of vaccine.

As for adolescents aged 12 to 17, a total of 2,832,919 or 91% have completed their vaccination while 2,933,324 or 94.2% have received at least one shot.