In a pandemic first, teens have the worst COVID case rate in Kansas

For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic reached Kansas more than a year ago, a youth age group has the worst COVID-19 cases rate in the state.

The 14-17 age group in Kansas had a rate of 51.16 new cases per 100,000 people last week, making it the age group with the highest incidence rate.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment data show last week was the first time any youth age group had been the worst. Previously, various adult age groups have had the worst coronavirus disease rates.

Both statewide and nationally, COVID-19 cases rates among children had been trending better. Now, those trends appear to be reversing.

In Wichita Public Schools, total case numbers for in-person students have been worse since the winter break than they were before it.

Studies have found that children are less likely to have severe disease that sends them to a hospital or causes death.

“Most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or have no symptoms at all,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “However, some children can get severely ill from COVID-19.”

In Kansas, there have been 36,168 confirmed and probable cases among patients aged infant through 17 years old. Those cases have resulted in 153 hospitalizations and one death.

“The true incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children is not known due to lack of widespread testing and the prioritization of testing for adults and those with severe illness,” the CDC has said.

Infected children put adults at risk.

“The risk may not be to the kids,” said Dr. Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, on Wednesday. “It may be to the parents, the grandparents and everybody else around them.”

Children and COVID vaccines

Doctors and public health officials have given COVID vaccines much of the credit for improving pandemic indicators over the past few months.

Even though the vast majority of children are currently ineligible to receive a vaccine, they still benefit from vaccinations among the rest of the population, said vaccine expert Dr. Barbara Pahud, the research director of pediatrics infectious diseases at Children’s Mercy Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the KU School of Medicine.

“Remember, as we immunize adults, we’re starting to see less COVID in our populations, which means children are going to get less COVID as well,” Pahud said Monday during a media briefing hosted by The University of Kansas Health System.

The Pfizer vaccine is approved for ages 16 and 17 because it has already been tested on those ages, but Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine trials only included adults. Most of those older teenagers still won’t be eligible until the state’s final vaccination phase, though 1,699 people younger than 18 have been vaccinated in the current phases, according to the KDHE.

Trials in children are being planned or are already underway. All the vaccines will eventually be tested on children as young as 6 months, Pahud said.

She said the speed of last summer’s vaccine trials was “unprecedented.” That won’t be the case for testing vaccines on children.

“The speed at which a pediatric trial will move is much slower than the adult ones, because we don’t have the urgency right now, unfortunately, to move these trials as quickly as we had last year to move the adult trials,” Pahud said. “Number one, those trials are going to be smaller. They’re going to be done with a lot less money and a lot less cooperation.”

“Hopefully we can get a teenage vaccine at least this summer or at the end of this year, but I’m guessing that the pediatric vaccines down to 6 months of age are not going to be available under EUA (emergency use authorization) until next year.”

Child COVID case data

The KDHE releases weekly data on COVID-19 case rates by age group. Up until last week’s data came out, one of the adult age groups always had the highest rate.

That changed the week beginning March 14 — last week, which is the most recent week of full data — when the 14-17 age group had the worst rate in the state. The rates were:

• All Kansans of all ages: 35.3 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages zero to 4 years old: 16.73 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 5-10: 26.71 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 11-13: 38.95 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 14-17: 51.16 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 18-24: 45.89 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 25-34: 46.22 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 35-44: 42.93 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 45-54: 36.28 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 55-64: 29.61 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 65-74: 24.61 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 75-84: 23.99 new cases per 100,000 people.
• Ages 85 and older: 15.23 new cases per 100,000 people.

The case rates are likely to be revised up in future reports due to incomplete data.

This week’s new cases are not included in the available statistics on case rates by age group, which are reported under the school gating metrics section of the KDHE’s COVID data website.

A separate report on case characteristics, as of Wednesday, showed that cases among children increased in the last seven days. That breaks a trend dating back to at least early February of generally decreasing case numbers among children.

Between Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, the state recorded 1,039 new cases among children. That dropped to 306 new cases between March 10 and March 17. But between March 17 and Wednesday, there were 353 new cases among children.

The Kansas numbers are similar to nationwide statistics, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The report uses COVID case data through March 18.

Nationwide, 57,078 new cases among children were reported last week, up from 52,695 the week before. That broke a two-month downward trend since hitting a high of 211,466 new child cases the week of Jan. 14.

The data set includes child cases for 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. New York is not included because it does not provide age information on cases, but New York City, which does have age information, was included. Texas is included, but with limited data, as only about 3% of all cases in that state have age information available.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association data is also limited by the various states and territories releasing numbers using different age ranges.

Of the available data, Kansas ranks as the 13th-best out of the 53 areas for the percentage of total cases that have been children. About 12% of Kansas cases were patients aged infant through 17 years old, compared to a nationwide figure of 13.3%.

Wichita schools

Cases among students have been decreasing recently in Wichita Public Schools.

Between Feb. 19 and March 19, USD 259 reported 50 new cases among in-person students and 13 new cases among remote students. Over the previous four weeks, between Jan. 22 and Feb. 19, the district reported 88 new cases among in-person students and 31 among remote students.

Despite the recent improvement, more in-person students at Wichita Public Schools have been infected with the coronavirus in the three months since Christmas than the number who were infected between the start of the academic year and winter break.

The district’s Dec. 23 report listed 184 total cases among in-person students and 266 cases among remote students, which included children who took online classes but participated in athletics and other extracurricular activities.

As of March 19, the district’s reported totals were 385 in-person student cases and 426 remote student cases. That marks a 109% increase in in-person cases and a 60% increase in remote student cases since the winter break started compared to the first four months of the school year.

The district’s Spring Break is this week. With the start of the fourth quarter on Monday, all K-12 students have the option to attend in-person classes five days a week. Remote learning will continue to be an option for the rest of the school year, but not next school year.

This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.