While many hospitals were filled with older adults early in the pandemic, now a growing proportion of patients with severe cases are adults under 40 or 50 years old, NPR reported May 1. The proportion of U.S. cases involving children has also grown in recent weeks.
Nationwide, adults under age 50 account for about 35 percent of new hospital admissions, according to CDC data. Patients age 50 to 64 account for about 31 percent of all hospitalizations.
Meanwhile, the hospitalization rate for adults over age 65 has fallen from 71.2 per 100,000 on Jan. 9 to 13 per 100,000 as of April 24, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are declining nationwide, but some parts of the U.S. are seeing renewed virus surges driven by the rise of more transmissible variants. For example, Washington has entered a fourth COVID-19 wave, and many hospitals in the state are reporting an uptick in patients under 40 years old with severe cases.
Among states that release COVID-19 data by age, children accounted for 22.4 percent of the 319,601 new cases reported in the week ending April 29, according to data compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association. The weekly pediatric case figure hit record levels in January before falling to a low of 52,695 cases in the week ending March 11. This figure has been creeping up since, hitting 71,649 pediatric cases in the week ending April 29, according to the data cited by NPR.
The data shows vaccination efforts have successfully protected the nation's older population, but also serves as a reminder that younger Americans are still at risk, NPR said.