Few Canadian children were very sick during early days of COVID-19 pandemic

Serious cases of COVID-19 were very rare among Canadian children during the first wave of the pandemic, a new study by Canadian researchers shows.

However, they warn this should not be seen as a reason not to vaccinate young children.

The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at 264 children hospitalized in Canada between March 25 and Dec. 31, 2020, found to have SARS-CoV-2.

Forty-three percent of these children had been hospitalized for another reason, such as a bone fracture, and it was only at the time of their admission that the coronavirus was detected.

"If you look at the numbers in total, that's only 150 children hospitalized for COVID-19 in the first two waves here in Canada," said the study's co-lead author Dr. Fatima Kakkar with the CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital. "So these are very small numbers when you compare them with what happened in adults."