OREANDA-NEWS. Dozens of children's clinics in Russia are being transferred to round-the-clock operation due to the active spread of the Omicron coronavirus strain among children.

According to Izvestia, additional departments for children are being introduced in some hospitals, and hospitals are being opened across the country to combat COVID-19.

Several regions have closed planned admissions to children's hospitals. These are the Yaroslavl and Orenburg regions, Primorsky Krai and Moscow. So, the building of the Speransky hospital in the capital was converted to receive children with COVID-19.

Doctors in Khabarovsk also changed the format of work - a call center with a hotline for parents was equipped in the children's clinic.

“Mobile teams of doctors have been formed. Separately, two covid brigades. District doctors, including pediatricians and doctors of the preschool-school department, all work 24 hours a day,” said Vitalia Dolgosheyeva, head physician of DGKP No. 3 of Khabarovsk.

As virologist Anatoly Altstein explained, the human body is more sensitive to Omicron than to other strains.

“A person is more sensitive to it than to other strains. And this sensitivity is enough to hurt not only adults, but also children, ”he said.

So, for children under five years old with Omicron, high fever and nausea are characteristic. In older children, "Omicron" passes in the form of SARS, but its course can be more difficult.

“High fever, body temperature up to 40 during the first three days. These are a sore throat, a headache and a dry, irritating cough,” said Galina Alekseychuk, Deputy Chief Physician of the Tosno Children’s Hospital.

On January 26, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova said that in recent days, hospitalization of children has increased by 36.5%. She added that cases of the Omicron strain have been registered in 72 regions of Russia. At the same time, the hospitalization rate for the week increased by 9.3%, and the number of new cases of COVID-19 increased by 102.4%.