Alberta kids who are too young for COVID-19 vaccine still at risk, experts say

Parents of young children are being urged to proceed with caution as many Albertans return to their pre-pandemic routines.

Alberta was one of the first provinces to lift virtually all COVID-19 public health measures, including widespread masking requirements. But there are concerns about how all this could affect children under five who aren't yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.

The very young along with the elderly and immunocompromised are vulnerable, experts say, at a time when the virus is still circulating without the protections that have been in place for two years.

"The pandemic has not gone away. Kids are still getting sick. Kids are still getting hospitalized," said Dr. Sam Wong, a pediatrician at the Stollery Children's hospital in Edmonton.

Numbers are down from the peak of the Omicron wave when more children were hospitalized than at any other point in the pandemic. But there are still several dozen kids and teens in hospital with the virus.

As of Thursday,  34 of the 1,067 Albertans hospitalized with COVID-19 were under 18, including seven in the ICU.

'Rolling the dice'

With public health measures mostly gone, Wong said parents of children too young to be vaccinated have to sort out what level of risk they're willing to take.

"The majority of kids will be fine. We know that," he said.

"But it's like rolling the dice. And if your number comes up, how do you feel about it when your kid is one who gets sick and ends up in hospital," said Wong, who is also the president of the pediatrics section for the Alberta Medical Association.

At Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, infectious disease specialist Dr. Jim Kellner is monitoring the trends as the province moves through the downside of the fifth wave. And he's doing so with a mix of hope and concern.

On one hand, cases and hospitalizations are down, he said.

"We are at a better place than we've been in a long time in the pandemic," said Kellner, who is a member of the federal COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.

But, says Kellner, the virus is still circulating.

"While we're relaxing the restrictions that were in place, it doesn't mean the pandemic is over and it doesn't mean that COVID-19 is gone. And so there's still reason for caution."

A more transmissible subvariant, known as BA.2, is becoming increasingly predominant. Limited PCR testing is still turning up hundreds of cases a day and, according to Kellner, the reproductive value is starting to creep up again.

"So [I'm] a little bit concerned that may be driven by the BA.2. It may be driven also by the relaxing of measures to reduce transmission.… We may be at least levelling off at a low level, which is good. But are we at risk of going back up? And the coming weeks will tell us this," he said.

"There's still a highly contagious variant out there which lots of people have been exposed to. But not nearly everybody, and not nearly everybody's protected from it — including young children."

Kellner is urging prudence.

He suggests parents continue keeping children home even when they're mildly sick. And masks, he said, can still help protect young children in high-risk settings such as sporting events at arenas, where many people are gathered indoors for a long time.

"It's hard to recommend … that children should always be wearing masks right now. I'm not recommending that. But I do think that people should still be thinking there's a time and a place for masks."

For his part, Wong strongly encourages parents to have all family members continue using masks in public places.

"I would suggest if you are concerned about your child … that you continue using masks when you go out in public, and that you take the precautions that have been in place for the last two years, until they can either get vaccinated or the numbers decrease to the point where it becomes less of a problem," he said.

There is no clear timeline on when a vaccine could be approved for Canadian children under the age of five.

Kellner, who is involved in a clinical trial for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines for children between the ages of six months and four years, said he expects new data from both Pfizer and Moderna will come out later this spring.