Omicron caused more hospitalisations among children

Muscat: The Omicron variant of COVID-19 caused a five-fold increase in the number of hospitalisations among children in the Sultanate, according to a specialist on infectious diseases.

Meanwhile, Oman logged 335 new cases of coronavirus on Monday. This brings the total number of positive COVID-19 cases to 385,153 in the Sultanate.

Speaking exclusively to TTV on its weekly show, T-Talk, that airs every Wednesday at 8pm on all social media platforms of Times of Oman, Dr Zaid Al Hinai, Assistant Professor and Consultant Paediatrician on Infectious Diseases at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) said there was a lot more spread among children during the Omicron wave. This had led to the creation of a Covid ward for children at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH).

“There were five times more hospitalisations among children during the Omicron wave compared to the two earlier waves. At SQUH, we used to have just two or three children with Covid during the earlier waves. Now, we are taking about 18 to 20 children. “We had to open a children’s ward and it is filled up,” he said.

Recovery rate
It’s not the severity of the infection that Al Hinai was talking about. But the number of hospitalisations among children just shot up. “In fact, the recovery rate among children is quite high and death is very rare among children. Most children do very well and recover from the illness,” the doctor said.

Other complications, although not falling into a pattern, but occurred generally among children, was breathing difficulties, pneumonia, ear infections, etc.

“Some children have respiratory infections leading to difficulty in breathing. Although this is not very common, these complications do occur. Such cases do well in the hospital with supportive care.

“Some children develop diarrhoea and get dehydrated, some may get an invasive bacterial infection that tends to weaken our natural immunity leading to pneumonia, ear infection, sinusitis, etc,” he said, adding that  such symptoms manifest themselves after any viral infection, including Covid.

Sounding a note of caution, the doctor said if your child is worsening or having a high fever, he/ she needs to be examined by the doctor. “However, there is no need to panic. In general, children do very well,” he added.