The number of children who are being hospitalized due to COVID-19 infections is rising. The omicron surge is leading to an increase in hospital admissions. The number of children under the age of five is at a record level and is at the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. There are no vaccines available for this age group.

The rate of hospitalizations for this age group in December is more than 4 in 100,000 children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the earlier rate was 2.5 per 100,000.

Although these levels are higher than earlier levels, hospitalization rates for kids under 18 is still lower than any other age group, according to CDC which also notes that this age group accounts for less than five percent of new daily admissions, on an average.

At a Friday briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of CDC said that the hospitalizations numbers also include those who were admitted for other reasons and were later found to have COVID as well as cases who were admitted for the infection itself.

In St. Louis ICU nurse told CBS News that they’re “seeing younger people die.” They were also seeing “people dying” who left behind “young children and teenagers.”

In South Africa, the first country to identify the omicron variant, new studies have shown that the COVID surge was declining as fast as it began. The CDC says that this could happen in the U.S. as well but different parts of the nation would see the surge in cases at different points of time.

On Friday, President Biden offered some hope as he said that the COVID that the nation was dealing with at this point of time was “not here to stay.” He said that they would be able to “control it.” He also optimistically said that “the new normal” was not going to be what it was now but was “going to be better.”