Children might have the highest risk of contracting the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 in the next wave of local infections, so parents should have their children vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday.
In his weekly online broadcast analyzing the COVID-19 situation, Chen said the severity of the Omicron subvariants is lower than for the Delta variant, but the infection rates are higher, and the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have caused a surge in cases in some countries.
During the peak of the Omicron outbreak in the US, the single-day infection rate was about 8.6 per 1,000 among children aged four or younger, he said, adding that the single-day infection rate in Taiwan was about 4.7 per 1,000.
Photo: Lo Chi, Taipei Times
While the rate in Taiwan was lower than in the US, possible risks should not be overlooked, he said.
The BA.5 subvariant drove a huge surge of new infections in Japan, peaking at 300,000 cases in a single day, while case numbers among those aged zero to 19 significantly increased, becoming the most affected age group, he said, adding that the trend might have been linked to vaccination rates.
“The vaccination coverage among children under 12 years old in Taiwan is less than ideal,” he said.
The rate among children aged five to 11 is lower than 50 percent, while it is only about 12 percent among children aged six months to four years, he said.
A member of Chen’s research team said the infection rate in the zero to 19 age group is the highest of all age groups in 11 cities and counties.
As vaccination rates are relatively low, increasing infection rates in children and adolescents might lead to more cases of severe illness or deaths, as well as multisystem inflammation syndrome in children (MIS-C), Chen said.
Among 84 cases of MIS-C reported among children aged 12 or younger as of Friday, 50 were five or younger — an incidence rate of 27.2 per 100,000 — while 34 were in the six-to-12 age group — an incidence rate of 15.5 per 100,000, Chen said, adding that most MIS-C cases were among unvaccinated people.
Studies in other counties have showed that COVID-19 vaccination was more than 90 percent effective in preventing MIS-C, so parents should have their children vaccinated as soon as possible to boost protection against BA.5 and MIS-C, Chen said.
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