The number of coronavirus infections among children and adolescents in Germany is growing rapidly. None of the vaccines against COVID-19 has yet been approved for the age group under 12, writes Spiegel.
The Standing Committee on Immunization (Stiko) recommends vaccinating adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. This recommendation is valid only from mid-August, so the percentage of vaccinated people in this age group is still small.
The pathogen is most likely to spread among children
This can be seen on the scale of morbidity: in no age group does the coronavirus spread as strongly as among 10-14-year-olds and 15-19-year-olds. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has registered approximately 140 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people in the past week. Among children aged 5-9, the incidence is about 100. Fortunately, so far only a few children across the country have been hospitalized for COVID-19.
Currently, almost 13 million children and adolescents are not vaccinated. “Fortunately, so far only a few children have been hospitalized in the country through COVID-19, and not all of them have been admitted to the intensive care unit,” said Sandra Cizek, director of the Institute of Virology at Frankfurt University Hospital.
Address of the head of DGPI to parents
In the pages of Spiegel, Tobias Tenenbaum, chairman of the German Society for Infectious Diseases of Children (DGPI), calls on unvaccinated parents to vaccinate them to protect their children. – We have a completely different situation than at the beginning of the pandemic. According to Tenenbaum, the spread of the virus as a whole has already slowed down due to vaccination, and hygiene measures are still being taken.
“In addition, hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents are already infected and probably have immunity. According to the RKI, a total of 400,000 infections in the 14-year-old group and 630,000 in the 15-19-year-old group. documented in Germany. In addition, there are a large number of unreported cases involving children and adolescents, because infections in the youngest are often almost asymptomatic and go unnoticed, “- said the German Spiegel.