Within weeks, the Omicron variant has fueled thousands of new Covid-19 hospitalisations among US children, raising new concerns about how the many unvaccinated Americans under the age of 18 will fare in the new surge.

The seven-day-average number of daily hospitalisations for children between Dec 21 and Dec 27 is up more than 58 percent nationwide in the past week to 334, compared to around 19 percent for all age groups.

This is according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fewer than 25 percent of the...