Fifth wave of Covid sees record number of children hospitalized in Spain

Fifth wave of Covid sees record number of children hospitalized in Spain

Fifth wave of Covid sees record number of children hospitalized in Spain Credit: Pixabay

Fifth wave of Covid sees record number of children hospitalized in Spain. The fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain has been mainly that of the young.

The number of people infected under the age of 29 has increased and the number of hospitalisations for this age group has grown dramatically compared to that seen in previous waves of the pandemic.

The Instituto de Salud Carlos III have changed the way that the coronavirus pandemic is measured several times so far, which makes it hard to directly compare the different coronavirus waves and their effect on the different age groups. However, paediatricians feel that in the fifth wave the number of infections and hospitalisations in children has dramatically increased.

Belen Aguirrezabalaga, a primary care paediatrician in Spain’s Gijon and head of the vaccines group of the Spanish Society of Outpatient and Primary Care Paediatrics (Sepeap) has spoken out about the number of infections.

“Although most cases are mild and even asymptomatic, it cannot be ignored that of the 932,102 cases that have occurred in children and adolescents up to the age of 19, more than 5,000 have required hospital admission, with more than 200 admissions to the ICU and 25 deaths,” said Aguirrezabalaga.

This is dramatically higher than what was seen with previous waves of the virus.

“Usually, during the summer, paediatric viral infections drop significantly at the end of the school period, where infections are concentrated,” added Aguirrezabalaga.

As the school year ended though, “there has been an increase in cases in the paediatric age groups that form part of adolescence. From the age of 12 onwards is where the increase in cases has been noted, for obvious reasons of socialisation during the holiday period, together with a decrease in restrictions”, according to the expert.


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Alex
Written by

Alex Glenn

Originally from the UK, Alex is based in Almeria and is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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