Hospital: Omicron cases found in Houston children
HOUSTON_— Texas Children’s Hospital has detected its first omicron cases in children, officials said Tuesday, one day after the highly contagious mutation became the United States’ most dominant COVID-19 variant.
The hospital’s testing lab found evidence of the omicron variant in at least 35 percent of the hundreds of viral specimens that underwent genomic sequencing last week, Dr. James Versalovic, Texas Children’s pathologist-in-chief, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon.
The prevalence of omicron in the viral swabs, taken from among the hospital’s pediatric population, indicate that Houston-area children have been catching and transmitting the variant since at least the second week of December. School-aged children and those under the age of 5 are among those infected.
Doctors expect the percentage of omicron cases in children and adolescents will rise in the coming days and weeks. The the heavily mutated version of the virus is all but certain to replace the delta variant. Omicron accounted for 82 percent of new symptomatic Houston Methodist COVID cases as of earlier this week, higher than the national rate of 73 percent reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday.
It was unclear Tuesday whether the children infected with omicron were vaccinated against COVID. Just 10% of Houston-area children have received the jab, according to hospital tallies.
Those treated at Texas Children’s have been “almost exclusively” unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, Versalovic said.
Two years into the pandemic, omicron’s startling rise among children underscores just how contagious and fast-moving the virus has become. Like the alpha and delta variants, it appeared heavily mutated and with little warning. But unlike those earlier variants, it has overtaken pediatric populations with a speed that has shocked even virologists.
Delta, first found in Houston adults in April, was slower to appear in children; the first pediatric case was identified two months later, in June. By contrast, omicron was found in children within weeks of its detection in adults.
“It’s a race between the vac
cines and the variants,” Versalovic said — and, right now, the variants appear to be winning.
Doctors have begun comparing the highly mutated omicron variant to measles, another highly contagious virus that spreads through respiratory droplets.
“I've NEVER seen anything like the speed of omicron,” Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director under President Barack Obama, tweeted Monday. “It's as infectious as measles spreading in a non-immune population, with a much shorter incubation time therefore much faster doubling time.”
The speed of contagion is important primarily because it means the virus will sicken more people at faster rates, with the potential to fill hospitals.
While little is known about omicron and how it may affect children, Versalovic said the omicron onslaught could be shorter — and more intense — than the summertime delta wave.
“It could be that this surge may take off rapidly and may ebb rapidly,” he
said.
On Tuesday, Dr. David Persse, Houston's chief medical officer, urged residents to mask up and get tested ahead of Christmas travel. He also encouraged Houstonians to get shots.