KK Hospital Admits Twice As Many Children With Covid-19 Symptoms Since Dec 2021
Amidst a surge in cases recently, a new trend is raising concerns in Singapore, as more children have reportedly been admitted to the hospital for Covid-19 symptoms. KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) confirmed this in response to queries from The Straits Times (ST).
They shared that the number of admissions for both Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 related respiratory symptoms has doubled over the last 7 weeks.
More worrying, perhaps, is that more than half of these patients are kids under 5 years old who are not eligible for the vaccination yet.
KK Hospital seeing more children with Covid-19 symptoms
Speaking to ST on Thursday (27 Jan), Associate Professor Thoon Koh Cheng, an infectious diseases consultant at KKH, reported a doubling of admissions involving children with Covid-19 symptoms since Dec 2021.
According to him, close to half of these patients with “not mild” symptoms involve those below 5 years old. These children currently do not qualify for the Covid-19 vaccinations.
The remaining cases are mostly older, unvaccinated children between the ages of 5 and 12.
Prof Thoon attributed the rise in paediatric patients to 2 factors:
- More close and social contacts in the community
- Complacency due to fatigue from pandemic restrictions
Hospital still has sufficient capacity to provide other services
Typically, Covid-19 patients stay at KKH for 2-3 days before returning home as part of the Home Recovery Programme (HRP).
In contrast, those who are not able to return home for HRP can remain in hospital for up to 7 days.
Despite the increase in cases, Prof Thoon said KKH has sufficient capacity to deliver clinical services to its patients.
It also has plans to take in more patients should the need arise.
KKH will continue supporting HRP patients via teleconsultations.
Hope parents will get eligible kids vaccinated ASAP
Since children are also at risk of contracting Covid-19, it’s vital for us to ensure that they’re adequately protected. For those who are eligible, this could be by getting them vaccinated.
As for kids below 5, we hope the authorities will soon give the green light for them to get their jabs too.
Hopefully, the current wave of cases will pass soon, enabling us to return to our normal pre-Covid lives.
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Featured image adapted from SingHealth.
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