Some health experts fear New Zealand has underestimated the impact of Covid-19 in children and that it could have long term consequences for some.
Around a third of all Covid cases here are in those aged up to 20 years old, with the vast majority mild cases.
However, since August 16 2021, 406 children under the age of 10 have been hospitalised with Covid-19, which amounts to 8% of all Covid hospitalisations. One child under 10 has died with the virus.
In the 10 to 19 age group, 271 people have been in hospital with symptoms, which is 5% of total hospitalisations.
Paediatric epidemiologist at University of Otago Wellington, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig says the impacts of Covid-19 in children have been, “very much underestimated and this is a problem we need to start solving right away”.
She believes New Zealand has been complacent in its approach to protecting children and this has allowed the virus to spread quickly and widely, particularly in school and preschool settings.
Dr Matire Harwood is a South Auckland GP. She says about half of her patients have been children with Omicron. She says they’re seeing “newborn babies through to teenagers” with the virus.
“People talk about Covid being a mild illness for children, and for the majority of the cases that may be so, but we also know for some populations, including Maori and Pacific people, people living in poverty, that isn't the case," Harwood says.
“Some children are presenting to hospital with dehydration because their throats are so sore, they’re vomiting and have diarrhoea.
“I think there is a degree of underselling Covid in our children.”
Kvaslkig says Kiwis have been falsely reassured and as a result we’re underreacting and under responding.
She believes more could’ve been done to stop the spread in schools, which would prevent the illness being brought into the home by children and potentially being passed on to older or more vulnerable family members.
“We're starting to see some concerning evidence coming through about hidden effects and long-term Covid effects in children we should be careful about.”
She says it shouldn’t come as a surprise as, “every other infectious disease of childhood has the potential to cause long term effects and those may be quite serious.
"It would be extremely optimistic to assume that Covid-19 would be different from all of those other infections and yet that doesn’t seem to have been the approach that has been taken.”
Kvalsvig says “some of the effects of Covid-19 that we are seeing in children are concerning because they’re hidden. Those include effects on the immune system and on blood vessels which may have implications in later life”.
The research also suggests a greater risk of long Covid in Pasifika and indigenous populations and those living in poverty.
Harwood says some of her teenage patients tell her they’re, “breathless and not able to participate in sports and activities to the level they were doing pre-Covid because of feeling so breathless.”
“We can't think of Covid as something we should all just let happen” she says.
Harwood and Kvalsvig want to see a shift in the pandemic approach towards children to reduce the number of children exposed to the virus.
Meanwhile the government and the Ministry of Health believe they have the approach right.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield says “we take soundings from a range of paediatricians and other child health experts and epidemiologists and the weight of advice we receive and opinion they give us is that they think we've done a good job in our advice around protecting children. We were one of the first out of the box and moving on vaccinating 5-11 year olds, also vaccinating 12-18 year olds.”
“I think we've constantly had children at forefront of response right from the start of the pandemic.”
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