Covid, the Delta variant affects more and more kids and children

The Delta variant is hitting children more and more: in the last week, in the 0 – 9 range the incidence increased and cases have reached more than 50 per 100 thousand inhabitants (a number that, until a few weeks ago, was enough to turn a region into a yellow zone). Even children aged 10 to 19 have begun to get sick more than their twenties and twice as many as those in their thirties and forties (who are covered by the vaccine).

The data is from the last monitoring of the‘Higher Institute of Health, and show that the incidence (which reaches 156 cases between 10-19 years), between 20 and 29 years is reduced to 146 and in the 30 – 39 and 40 – 49 age groups it is decidedly lower (79 and 56 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants).

According to the contact tracing activities, the contagion occurs mainly (in 80% of cases) in the family, when unvaccinated parents or adolescent siblings carry the virus into their home. While the opposite happens for the flu, for the Covid it is documented that it is the adults who carry the spread. The number of children hospitalized or who end up in intensive care is also increasing (but fortunately remains low): they are above all the most fragile.

“In the last month we have hospitalized 40 positive children, compared to 10 in the previous month,” he explained to Republic Alberto Villani, director of the Department of Emergency, Acceptance and General Pediatrics of the Child Jesus. “When they come to need hospitalization they lung disorders, a deterioration in general condition, fever, feeling unwell. Some are no longer able to eat, to eat properly ».

Precisely for this reason in all regions a preferential lane is reserved for children aged 12 to 19 in the vaccination campaign to which they can participate without the need for a reservation. Today 60% of Italians, 35 million citizens, are vaccinated: over a million are under the age of 18.