SINCE March last year, more than 180 000 children have tested positive for Covid-19 in South Africa, 11 129 of them treated in hospital.
This is according to the latest surveillance report from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
The NICD said there were 184 187 confirmed Covid-19 cases among individuals aged 19 years and younger during the surveillance period from March 1, 2020 to June 19 2021.
“Cases among individuals aged 19 year and younger were 5.1 times lower than those aged 19 years and above. The cases in the 19 years and below group peaked in week 21 of 2021 for Northern Cape and Free State in the third wave and has been increasing since week 21 of 2021 for all other provinces,” the report said.
From March 2020 to June 2021, children under the age of 19 accounted for 10.2% of laboratory-confirmed #COVID19 cases. While children have been infected at a lower rate than adults, they can become infected and spread the virus to others. Read more here https://t.co/JGgtEtL0rb
— NICD (@nicd_sa) July 6, 2021
About 1.6 million tests were conducted in the 19 years and below group during the surveillance period, equivalent to a testing rate of 7598.2 per 100 000 with a 12.5% percentage testing positive.
The report also showed that among all deaths in individuals aged 19 years and below, 146 (38.4%) were among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years and 121 (31.8%) were aged under one year.
However, the NICD said the rise and decreases in the numbers of cases in children did not appear to be directly related to the timing of opening or closing of schools, suggesting schools were not the main drivers of infections in children.
Most of the tests among individuals aged 19 years and below were in five provinces; Gauteng (29.1%), KwaZulu-Natal (24.3%), the Western Cape (12.2%), the Eastern Cape (10.6%) and the Free State (7.0%) together accounting for 80.6% of all tests.