This report is made up of epidemiology and clinical characteristics of laboratory confirmed COVID-19 among children and adolescents aged ≤18 years in South Africa (1 March 2020 – 1 May 2021)

Key highlights: 

• As of 1 May 2021, individuals aged ≤19 years made up 9.4% of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3.8% of all COVID-19-associated admissions.
• There were 148,768 new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases aged ≤19 years during the surveillance period.
• The cumulative incidence of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases aged ≤19 years was 681.6 per 100 000 population, 5.5 times lower than that in those aged >19 years (3760.1 per 100 000 population).
• There were 9 918 reported COVID-19-associated admissions among individuals aged ≤19 years. The incidence of admission among children aged ≤19 years was 13.3 times lower (454.4 per 1 million) than that in those aged >19 years (6027.0 per 1 million).
• The cumulative rate of admission was highest in individuals aged <1 year at 1667.7 per 1 million population, followed by individuals aged 15-19 years at 758.0 per 1 million population.
• Data on in-hospital outcome were available for 9443 (95.2%) individuals aged ≤19 years. Among these, there were 401 in-hospital deaths giving an in-hospital case fatality risk of 4.2% (401/9443). Among all deaths, 146 (36.4%) were among adolescents aged 15-19 years and 125 (31.2%) were aged under one year. Among 245 (61.1%) in-hospital deaths with available data on underlying conditions, 148 (60.4%) reported ≥1 underlying conditions.

monthly COVID-19 in children –  WEEK 20 (2021)

monthly COVID-19 in children –  WEEK 8 (2021)

monthly COVID-19 in children –  WEEK 48 (2020)

monthly COVID-19 in children –  WEEK 45 (2020)

monthly COVID-19 in children –  WEEK 40 (2020)