Explosion of severe forms of Covid among young people: 64 children in intensive care

Since the start of the pandemic, children have not been spared by the Covid-19 virus: the Minister of Solidarity and Health, Olivier Véran, recalled on this subject that 28 deaths of minors have been recorded since the start of the health crisis. Among them, 13 children aged 0 to 9, and 15 children aged 10 to 18.

If children are less affected by severe forms of Covid-19, the risk is not zero, as evidenced by the latest figures for hospitalizations among young people: currently, 64 children are in pediatric intensive care following the contraction of a severe form of Covid-19, a rate that has exploded in this post-holiday period, as explained on Tuesday, January 4 Olivier Véran on the occasion of the debate around the bill for the vaccine pass:

This evening there are 64 children hospitalized in pediatric intensive care for a serious covid, it is twice the maximum recorded in November or December with 30 children on a given day.

To cope, in particular, with this surge in cases, and while the vaccination of 5-11 year olds has started, the deputies debated the legal age to be set for the introduction of the vaccination pass in the youngest.

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A vaccination pass from 16 years old

This Tuesday, January 4, the deputies therefore decided, on first reading of the bill, to set the age of the vaccination pass at 16 years, against 12 years in the initial bill. To justify this extension of the vaccination pass to the youngest, the Minister of Health evoked, with supporting studies, a lower risk of contracting a severe form of Covid :

The chances of a child developing a severe form are very low, but there are some. […] A vaccinated child is much less likely to develop a severe form of disease.

Beyond ruling out the risk of being infected with a severe form of Covid-19, vaccinating young people would also reduce the spread of the virus, which circulates easily among children.