At least 2 Sacramento children have died of COVID, county health office report shows
Between two and four Sacramento County children have died of coronavirus during the pandemic, data in a recent report from the local health office to county leaders showed, compared to nearly 2,200 COVID-19 deaths among adults.
One of the child deaths happened in February 2021, according to a presentation by the county health officer during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Local health officials have not publicly disclosed juvenile COVID-19 deaths, citing privacy protocols. The 0-to-17 death toll was redacted in the health officer’s presentation but could be determined indirectly from other data that was displayed.
“The epidemiologist asks that we mask any numbers that are less than five,” county health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye told the supervisors. “So for 0-to-17, the total number is less than five.”
But The Sacramento Bee determined the number of deaths using figures on death rates per capita by age group, which were not redacted and were cited by Kasirye.
“You can see how (the death rate) gradually increases from one per 100,000 in (the) 0-to-9 group to over 1,000 for 80-plus,” Kasirye told supervisors on Tuesday, referencing data tables.
The per-capita death rates included in those tables mean the county through mid-September has recorded two cumulative deaths among minors, both children younger than 10.
Asked during a Thursday call with reporters whether there have been any pediatric COVID-19 deaths in Sacramento County, Kasirye deferred to epidemiology program manager Jamie White, who would only say there have been fewer than five.
“Per our privacy procedures that’s about all I can say about that topic,” White said.
Not all California counties’ health offices share that privacy standard.
Orange County in early September confirmed its second COVID-19 death in a minor, out of more than 5,400 among its residents. Tulare County health officials disclosed a juvenile death this week, also that county’s second of the pandemic. Close to 900 Tulare County adults have died.
COVID-19 deaths remain exceedingly rare among children, state and local data show. Sacramento’s juvenile deaths account for a small fraction of the 2,181 reported as of Thursday. More than 1,500 of those fatalities were ages 65 or older, including more than 870 who were at least 80 years old.
The California Department of Public Health reports just 35 of close to 68,000 coronavirus deaths confirmed to date have come in minors — 0.05% of the death toll though they account for 23% of the state’s population. Ten were younger than 5, and 25 were between ages 5 and 17.
COVID deaths by age: Data breakdown
One slide of the Sacramento County health department’s Tuesday presentation included a graph showing deaths for each week of 2021 broken down into four age groups: 0 to 17, 18 to 49, 50 to 64 and 65-plus.
That graph shows one death in the 0-to-17 group, during the week that began Feb. 14. The graph does not include 2020.
The same slide also includes two tables: one breaking down the county’s total of 2,052 deaths (through early September) across those four broad age ranges, and the other narrowing them down: 0 to 9, 10 to 19 and so on, up through 80-plus.
The first table obscures the death total for juveniles, but the totals for the other three age groups add up to two fewer than the overall death toll. The second table redacts raw totals for ages 0 to 9 and 10 to 19, but the remaining decade cohorts add up to three fewer than the overall toll.
The second table also includes an unredacted column displaying deaths per capita in each age group over the course of the pandemic. That column shows 1.0 deaths per 100,000 in ages 0 to 9 and 0.5 in ages 10 to 19 throughout the pandemic — both very low in relation to infections among young people and compared to deaths in older adults, as Kasirye pointed out.
The death rates for adults older than 50 were 107 per 100,000 for residents in their 50s, 228 per 100,000 for those in their 60s, 452 per 100,00 for those in their 70s and 1,556 per 100,000 for those 80 or older, according to Tuesday’s presentation.
Because the 0-to-9 and 10-to-19 cohorts each account for close to 200,000 county residents, per-capita rates of 1.0 and 0.5 suggest death tolls of two and one, respectively.
Additionally, the first table shows 138 deaths in the 18-to-49 age group, but death tolls in the second table for ages 20 to 29, 30 to 39 and 40 to 49 add up to 137. That indicates the death from the 10-to-19 cohort came in a resident who was 18 or 19.
Health officials have also noted cases and hospitalizations trending younger in recent months, as have local hospitals, as the delta variant spreads. UC Davis Medical Center in a Sept. 15 update said it had one pediatric patient in its intensive care unit with COVID-19, on a ventilator.
Concern for children has also been elevated because of the return to on-campus learning this fall at K-12 campuses, and because no vaccine is authorized yet for those under 12.
This week’s report to the supervisors said the median age of death over the preceding 30 days was 63 years old, compared to 76 for the entire pandemic.
Kasirye explained during Tuesday’s meeting that this trend is likely due to the higher vaccination rates among older populations and in congregate care settings, such as nursing homes. Ages 65 and older make up 74% of cumulative deaths throughout the pandemic, but only 49% of deaths in the past month, according to the presentation.
The biggest increase has come in ages 50 to 64, which account for 19% (391) of all county virus deaths but 36% (60) in the past 30 days, Kasirye said.
The youngest to die between early August and early September was 26 years old, according to the report.
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 12:22 PM.
