Covid Grim Reaper cuts an alarming swathe among teens, babies

AMONG the over 550 teenagers and children under 19 who have died due to Covid-19 since the pandemic started, 201 were teenagers aged between 15 and 19 and 108 were infants less than a year old.

This is according to the latest monthly Covid-19 in children surveillance report between March last year and August 28 this year released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Wednesday.

In the report, the NICD said that while the number of children and adolescents tested, diagnosed and admitted due to Covid-19 increased in the third wave peak period, compared with the first and second waves to peak period, there was no increase in fatalities or ICU admissions compared to adults.

About 565 Covid-related deaths were recorded during the surveillance period, according to the report.

Among all deaths of teenagers and children under 19, 201 were teens aged between 15 and 19, 85 children between 10 and 14 years of age, 36 children between five and nine, 53 toddlers between one and four, 108 infants less than a year old and 82 were less than a month old.

Provincially, Gauteng was home to most the Covid-associated hospitalised children and teens under 19 who died in hospital, numbering 177, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 106 and the Western Cape at 69. The Northern Cape had the least deaths of the 565 reported with 12, followed by the North West at 28.

“The most common underlying cause among the children who died during the third wave to peak period was

HIV infection. Even though absolute numbers of deaths remain substantially lower than those in adults, given the high prevalence of HIV among adolescents in South Africa, efforts should be considered to vaccinate adolescents with underlying conditions placing them at increased risk of severe Sars-CoV-2,” the report said.

The NICD said there was a need to ensure high compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions within households and schools of children and adolescents, especially those with underlying conditions.

According to the report, individuals under 19 made up 14.2% of Covid-19 tests and 11.8% of laboratory-confirmed cases, as well as 4.7% of admissions and 0.7% of hospital deaths.

“The majority of the tests among individuals aged under 19 were in five provinces: Gauteng (27.8%), KZN (24.8%), Western Cape (12.2%), Eastern Cape (11.5%) and Free State (6.9%), these provinces together accounting for 80.9% of all tests,” the NICD said.

In all, 2.2 million tests were conducted among children under 19 with 15.8% testing positive for Covid-19 and about 184 187 laboratory-confirmed cases, with 17184 hospital admissions.

According to the NICD, the third wave saw a rise in Covid testing, cases and hospitalisation in teens and children under 19 compared with the first wave. “This could reflect increased testing availability, a shift of cases to extremes of age due to the gap in immunity between children and adults, less compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions in this age group or increased infection of children with the third wave related to circulating variants,” the report said.

Across the country, the first and second peaks for the third wave for teenagers and children were in weeks 25 and 33 of 2021 and weeks 27 and 33 for admissions.

“Peaks in cases in the first and second wave did not appear to be related to the timing of the opening and closing of schools, suggesting that school opening and closures are not major drivers of Sars-CoV-2 waves.

“However, the peaks in the third wave were in week 25, one week before schools were closed, and in week 33, three weeks after schools were opened,” the report said.