Covid-19 infections are on the rise again. BA.2, a sub-variant of Omicron, is the majority in France and particularly affects children. But is it more contagious than the other variants and should we be concerned about its dangerousness?
Since March 14, 2022, the vaccination pass is no longer in force and the obligation to wear a mask has been lifted but, no, theCovid-19 outbreak is not over. Contaminations have been on the rise for several weeks and some 130,000 new cases are detected every day. The BA.2, a derivative of Omicron, is said to be behind this takeover. This subvariant would be now majority in France. According to a report from Public Health France, taken up by magicmomit represents today 73% of cases of coronavirus. Children and teenagers would be particularly affected by this sub-variant. BA.2 would therefore be more contagious For the young ? And especially, Is it dangerous ?
On March 25, 2022, the Ministry of Education revealed that more than 80,000 cases had been recorded over the last seven days among French pupils. More than three thousand classes were thus closed. A month earlier, “only” 1,584 cases had been detected and seventy-two classes closed. “Young people are usually more often infected with respiratory viruses because of the strong promiscuity of their school environment, which occurs in closed and often poorly ventilated places”has indicated Professor Antoine Flahaultepidemiologist and director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, The Midi Dispatch. Then he clarified: “The variant BA.2 is no exception to this rule but, as it is a more contagious variant than the previous ones, it is even more prone to spread among young people.”
The reasons for the increase in hospitalizations among young people
If this sub-variant of Omicron therefore seems more contagious, should parents be worried about its dangerousness? Taking information from France Info, magicmom reports that 1,150 children positive for Covid-19 have been hospitalized at the end of January 2022. Previously, this figure had never exceeded two hundred. Some five hundred young people under the age of 20 were still in hospital on March 24. According to Professor Antoine Flahault, the low number of children vaccinated against the coronavirus could partly explain this increase. Another cause put forward by the epidemiologist: wearing a mask is no longer required in classrooms. This decision could, in his view, favor “the risks of Covid long in unvaccinated children with or without comorbidities”.
A study by Hong Kong researchers, published in the magazine The Lancet, also found an increase in childhood hospitalizations in Hong Kong linked to the Omicron variant. According to scientists, this increase is due to “a lack of exposure to the coronavirus over the past two years, resulting in lack of immune response“ which could lead to a risk of developing a severe form. It is nevertheless important to relativize these words. magicmom recalls that, in France, all people positive for coronavirus who are in hospital are taken into account in the figures, even if they are not hospitalized because of Covid-19.