A public health report from the CDC's COVID-NET surveillance system looked at how often very young children were hospitalized with COVID-19. The report focused on infants and children aged 0-4 years who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection. It collected data from hospitals across 14 states to describe hospitalization rates, including during the time when the Omicron variant was the most common form of the virus.
The report does not provide the specific hospitalization rates, numbers of children affected, or comparisons to hospitalization rates in other age groups. It also does not report on how sick the children were, what treatments they received, or any safety concerns from their hospital stays. The main purpose was to monitor and describe trends in this young age group.
It is important to be careful with this information because it is an observational report, not a formal study. This means it describes what was seen but does not prove what caused the hospitalizations or compare risks between different time periods or variants. Without specific numbers, it is difficult to understand the actual scale or risk for families.
Readers should take from this that public health officials are monitoring COVID-19 in young children. The report confirms that children under 5 can be hospitalized with the virus, but it does not provide new data to quantify that risk or guide personal medical decisions. Parents should continue to follow guidance from their child's doctor regarding COVID-19 prevention and care.
