Are 1 in 30 COVID teenagers ending up in Hospital?
Mark Butler says teenagers with COVID-19 are ending up in hospital at a rate of one in 30. Is that correct?
Mark Butlers actual words were: “One in 30 teenagers who catch COVID is ending up in hospital”
Here are a few excerpts from a
Fact Check on the above:
- Mr Butler’s claim is not the full story.
- Data from NSW, home to the most serious outbreak, showed a similar picture. Of those aged from 12 to 17, 3 per cent were admitted to hospital. In other words, one in 33 or 34 teenagers with COVID-19 was being admitted to hospital.
- The department’s report shows that between January 1 and August 1, <…> 20 were hospitalised representing 2.9 per cent of cases in this age group, or one in 34.
- The proportion of those who were hospitalised rose to 3.8 per cent, or one in 26.
- Between January 1, 2020 and August 14, 2021, 3 per cent of cases in those aged 12 to 17 were admitted to hospital. <…> This represented a hospitalisation rate of one in 33.
- Mr Butler responded by repeating his claim. “Sure, but I have talked to parents who have children with COVID and for many of them it’s been a very, very severe disease and as I say, as many as one in thirty are ending up in hospital,” he said.
So between about 1 in 26, and 1 in 34.
Maybe he should have said “About one in 30 teenagers who catch COVID is ending up in hospital”.
Hospital beds are valuable spaces, no matter how we look at it.