By Sue-Ann Wayow
EIGHT children are currently warded in hospital with Covid-19.
Even are below the age of 12 and one under the age of 18.
One of the children is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
This was revealed by Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram on Wednesday during the Ministry of Health’s virtual Covid-19 update.
He could not yet say if any variants of concern were detected in them.
The rising cases of Covid-19 in children is a cause of concern especially with the presence of the Omicron variant, the CMO said, adding that the Omicron variant would become the dominant variant of concern within the next few weeks.
He said, “We note it as a concern on the back of Omicron and looking on as what is happening in the rest of the world. The paediatric cases are filling up the hospitals in the US and in other territories from around the world.”
Dr Parasram added, “We are seeing that the Omicron is increasing in prevalence. It is about 25% of the variants of concern that we are picking up as of Friday’s report and we expect that what happened in other parts of the world that it may rise pretty quickly and Omicron may become dominant within the next week or two. Delta still is the dominant accounting for 75 per cent of variants of concern picked up.”
