The highly infectious Delta variant does not cause more severe COVID-19 in children, a new study published in the U.S. suggests.
Since the Delta strain has become the dominant variant in the U.S. in late June, infections and hospitalizations among children in the U.S. have spiked - but researchers say there's no direct link between the two.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed hospital records from across an area covering around 10 percent of the U.S. population in a period that goes from March, before the Delta variant took over the country, until August, when the strain had been dominant for two months.
Mobile vaccination teams begin visiting every Los Angeles Unified middle and high school campus to deliver first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccines as students return to in-person classes in Los Angeles. /Mike Blake/Reuters
What emerged from this research is that there was very little difference between the hospital records from the pre-Delta time and the post-Delta time for severity of symptoms in children.
Before Delta took over in the U.S., the percentage of children admitted to intensive care was 26.5. After Delta became dominant in the country, this same percentage was 23.2.
The percentage placed on ventilators was 6.1 pre-Delta and 9.8 post - and the percent who died was 0.7 pre-Delta and 1.8 post.
There was a much more noticeably different in the vaccination status of the hospitalized children.
The researchers found that unvaccinated children and teens were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who were vaccinated.
Cover image: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo