Oishei Children's Hospital is in the midst of its busiest month for pediatric Covid-19 admissions since the pandemic started and is concerned hospitalizations could increase even more as the highly contagious Omicron variant spreads throughout Western New York over the holiday season.
But in good news: Pediatric hospitalizations here are nowhere near the surge seen downstate, and Oishei has the capacity to care for children if that changes.
So far this month, 33 children have been admitted to Oishei with symptomatic Covid-19, an increase from 28 in November and 17 in October, said Dr. Stephen Turkovich, Oishei's chief medical officer. Nine have needed to go to the intensive care unit, including one who required ventilator support, he added.
Of those nine, Turkovich said, eight were at least 5 years old and none were fully vaccinated.
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Oishei also has seen an increase in the number of children testing positive in its emergency department. The hospital had 75 children test positive for Covid-19 for the week of Dec. 20-26, including 28 on Sunday, Turkovich added. That was up from 38 positive cases in the prior week.
"I think Omicron is obviously here, and we're starting to see those increases in the ED, and I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see some increases in the hospital," he said.
While pediatric cases here are rising, the increase is well behind the jump New York City has experienced. On Friday, in fact, the Health Department issued a health advisory to health care providers to warn them of an upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with Covid-19. The recent increases, the state said, have been concentrated in New York City and the surrounding metro area, where Omicron was first detected and is quickly spreading.
For instance, there were 70 pediatric hospital admissions from Covid-19 across the state for the week of Dec. 5-11, which included 22 in New York City. The most recent data, however, shows 184 pediatric hospital admissions across the state from Dec. 19-23, including 109 in New York City.
At a news conference Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Dr. Mary Basset, the state's acting health commissioner, emphasized that the rise in pediatric cases in hospitals is still a low number, so there is no cause for panic. Rather, they said they highlighted it to encourage more parents to get their kids vaccinated.
"We're releasing this data because we want pediatricians to be alert to making the diagnosis of Covid in children," said Bassett, who recently had a Covid-19 infection and was wearing a mask during the Albany news conferences. "And we also want parents to be alert to the diagnosis. Many people continue to think that children don't become infected with Covid. This is not true. Children become infected and some will be hospitalized. The immunization coverage in this group, the vaccination coverage, remains too low."
As of Sunday, 27.3% of 5- to 11-year-old children in New York had received at least once vaccine dose, and 16.4% were fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, 71.8% of 12- to 17-year-olds had received at least one dose, and 64.1% were fully vaccinated.
"With respect to our young people: Parents, we are calling on you," Hochul said. "This is the time you have the kids home from school. There's plenty of vaccination opportunities, from your pediatrician, to a site set up by the state of New York, our urgent care centers, so many places, drugstores, where you can go get your child vaccinated before they get back to school."
While the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for emergency use in children ages 5-11 in late October, those under the age of 5 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. Pfizer and BioNTech on Dec. 17 said they could submit data to regulators to support emergency use for children 6 months to 5 years old in the first half of 2022.
Cases and hospitalizations among the youngest population will remain a concern.
Since Dec. 15, Turkovich said 16 children have been admitted to Oishei for Covid-19, including seven who were under 5 years old.
As 2021 draws to a close, one thing is indisputable: There were stories in Western New York that will live on in our memories for a long time.
"I think with the holidays here and people traveling, as well as spending time with family, we're going to start to see over the next week a significant increase," he said, noting case trends here can lag New York City by two or three weeks. "And, unfortunately, the disease burden may be disproportionately felt by the less than 5-year-olds because they're obviously the ones that are least protected."
Should pediatric cases and hospitalizations increase, Oishei has the staffed bed capacity to handle it, Turkovich said.
While Oishei had significant cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, in October and November, those cases have now dropped to a "very, very low" level for this time of year, he noted.
But the hospital is starting to see some a slight increase in flu cases, which typically peak in January or February, and he urged people to get their flu shots.
"So with Omicron coming and if the flu peaks in the traditional time, we're in for a really rough beginning of 2022," Turkovich said.
