Local pediatrician not surprised by rising COVID-19 cases amongst youth

Pediatrician not surprised by youth COVID-19 cases Local pediatrician Dr. Rania Harim says she's not surprised at a rising number of COVID-19 cases amongst youth.

BARRIE, ONT. — Local pediatrician Dr. Rania Hiram says she's not surprised that kids are now making up most of the COVID-19 cases across the country and more than a quarter of the daily cases in Simcoe Muskoka.

"That would definitely make sense," says Dr. Hiram. "They are the one pocket of the population that has not been vaccinated as a general rule against COVID, so that's probably where we're going to see the majority of the cases.

On Friday, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported 52 new daily infections. Of those new cases, 15 were children 17 years of age and younger.

However, Dr. Hiram says they're not seeing the number of cases they initially anticipated to see. Up until now, kids have been dealing with the virus at home rather than inside the four walls of a hospital.

"We have had maybe one or two admissions to our hospital (RVH), but these admissions did not come in because of COVID; they were found to be asymptomatic COVID positive, and they typically came in for something else, "says Dr. Hiram.

"These kids that are getting sick with COVID are more typically presenting with very mild disease," she adds.

With the Pfizer vaccine now approved for kids ages 5 to 11 south of the border, vaccines for that age group have become a hot topic.

As Canadian parents await approval from Health Canada, Dr. Hiram says most parents she's spoken to are excited.

"They do have a lot of questions which we're answering about getting the vaccine approved for their children and getting them vaccinated," says Dr. Hiram. "That will be another layer of protection and safety to ensure kids remain healthy as safe but also continue to do all the kid activities that they're supposed to be doing," she adds.