Atlanta: In an alarming development, COVID-19 hospitalisations are rising among babies under 6 months of age.
So much so that US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has urged mothers to get vaccinated to reduce risk of infection in those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
“We’re seeing more and more of those younger babies getting hospitalised. That’s really where we’re trying to do some work now because we think we can prevent those by getting mom vaccinated, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told Bloomberg in an interview at its Atlanta headquarters.
Walensky informed that in recent months the second-highest rate of hospitalisation is among children aged under 6 months, only following the age group of 65-year-old and above.
Walensky, who herself has just recovered from COVID and subsequent post-treatment rebound, was speaking ahead of the release of a CDC report which has examined an increase in the rate of hospitalisation among infants.
Walensky said CDC will seek to push vaccination for all eligible children older than 6 months.
“We have seen relatively low vaccination rates in our 6 months to 5-year-olds.. even our 5-to-11 and our 12-to-17-year-olds. One of the most important things that you can do is to get your children vaccinated,” she advised.
