"Because society has basically returned back to what ... was normal pre-COVID, that just puts us all at risk for transmission," CEO Cliff Robertson says.
With a new but not unexpected uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations, Saint Francis Health System officials spoke Thursday about variants, vaccines for children and vulnerability.
“Because society has basically returned back to what looks and feels much more like what was normal pre-COVID, that just puts us all at risk for transmission,” CEO Cliff Robertson said, “given that these new variants occur and prior immunity ... may not be as effective.”
Infections and active cases of COVID-19 have been increasing steadily in Oklahoma since late May, with hospitalizations due to COVID-19 also creeping upward. State health officials on Thursday reported 29 COVID-19 pediatric cases requiring hospital care.
Children 4 and younger represent 4.7% of new COVID hospitalizations (17) in the past 90 days, according to the most recent weekly epidemiological report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
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Active cases around the state, almost 12,000 now across Oklahoma, are up 250% since school let out for the summer. The three-day average for hospitalizations is up to 206 in Oklahoma, 59 in Tulsa.
“The issue around why we’re now seeing an uptick ... around the country we have begun to travel more, we are not isolating, socially distancing like we used to,” Robertson said Thursday.
Most new hospitalizations and fatal cases of COVID-19 are in patients 65 and older, which Robertson said was a positive sign compared with previous surges with hospitalized patients skewing younger.
Saint Francis Director of Pharmacy Services David Donald spoke about newly approved vaccines for patients younger than 5.
Federal regulators earlier in June approved, and CDC officials recommended, Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old.
Children younger than 5 may experience pain and redness at the injection site, fever, headaches, chills and muscle pain. These reactions mean the children’s immune systems are working to protect them, health officials say.
Some children and teens experience no side effects, but serious side effects, although rare, are possible. Parents should contact their primary care provider if they have any specific concerns about side effects from a vaccination.
Vaccines may not prevent infection, Donald said, but they have been proven effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization and deaths from COVID-19. About 15,000 Oklahomans have died from the novel coronavirus, according to federal data.
CDC data suggests hospitalization rates related to the omicron variant is five times higher for patients 4 and younger, he said.
Donald said an FDA subcommittee is now evaluating whether omicron or another subvariant should be incorporated into fall booster vaccines.
“If you still don’t pick the perfect variant, almost always you get protection” from severe disease with any COVID vaccine, he said, “and that’s what we’re seeing with omicron right now.”
