South African official says symptoms are mild in children amid surge

A South African official said Saturday that rising COVID-19 infections among children in the country are mild amid concerns about the rapidly spreading omicron variant in the country.

South Africa has seen an increase in hospitalizations in young children and pregnant women, but it is too soon to tell if the increase is from the omicron variant, which was first detected in the country, Reuters reported.

Ntsakisi Maluleke, a public health specialist in the Gauteng province, told Reuters there were 113 children under the age of 9 in the hospital with COVID-19 in the province, an uptick from past coronavirus waves.

"We are comforted by clinicians' reports that the children have mild disease," she said, although there is not a definitive answer yet about why there has been an increase in child cases.

In the past, children have fared better with the coronavirus, as the disease has not affected kids in the way it has impacted adults. However, some children infected with the disease have developed a rare condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

Maluleke said scientists are investigating the reason for the increase and hope answers will come within the next two weeks.

It is not clear that the increase is driven by the omicron variant due to the small number of COVID-19 tests in South Africa that are sent for genomic sequencing, Reuters noted.

"The public needs to be less fearful but vigilant," Maluleke said.

Scientists are still working to determine how transmissible the omicron variant is, if it is more deadly than previous strains and whether it is more resistant to coronavirus vaccines.

The variant was first announced in South Africa at the end of November and has spread to dozens of countries around the world.

The U.S. is reporting omicron cases in at least 12 states, with more states likely to announce cases of the new strain in the near future.