New York health officials have reported a surge in pediatric hospitalizations, as the White House promised on Sunday to rapidly resolve America’s coronavirus test shortage.

In a statement on Friday, the New York State’s Health Department cautioned of an upward trend in children hospital admissions amid COVID-19. New York City has faced a fourfold rise in COVID-19 hospital admissions for children 18 and up, as opposed to children older than eighteen years of age. Moreover, those surges have occurred within 3-weeks from the week of 5th December to last week. And most of the kids who’ve been admitted to hospital were, surprise, amazing, uninoculated.

The department added about half of the hospitalizations are younger than 5, the age bracket that is vaccine-ineligible. In addition, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University figures, the number of coronavirus infections in America is on the rise, with an average of approximately 0.19M new cases daily over the past week.

The influx of the new COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.529, named Omicron, compounded by holiday festivities that typically include travel and family gatherings, have caused a rush on COVID-19 tests in the country, where it’s challenging to get one in many spots.

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US top infectious disease expert, acknowledged a “Coronavirus testing problem” and promised to make more testing available to the US people in January 2022.

Moreover, Dr. Fauci told ABC News that one of the issues is that that isn’t going to be wholly available to everyone until they get to January, and there are still some problems now of people having trouble getting tested. But he added they’re addressing the coronavirus testing issue, saying it should be corrected immediately.

Omicron is ‘extraordinary contagious’ – Dr. Anthony Fauci

President Biden declared on Tuesday a raft of new measures as America combats its latest COVID-19 surge, including shipping 0.5 Bn free home tests in the wake of the Christmas time coronavirus testing crunch. The White House, however, whose strategy has for weeks been mostly focused on immunizations, has experienced strong disapproval over the fact that many tests wouldn’t be available until next month.

Moreover, on Sunday, top U.S. pandemic advisor Dr. Fauci emphasized that the government was scaling up to cope with the spike and stressed that the new variant was ‘extraordinary contagious.’

Apart from packed hospitals and coronavirus testing locations, the SARS-CoV-2 variant has forced the cancellation of numerous fights in America, as crews called in sick or had to isolate after exposure to the lethal virus.

In addition, the latest studies in the United Kingdom and South Africa specify that Omicron was less possible to lead to hospital admissions than the previous COVID-19 strains. Fauci noted that the duration of stay in the hospital and oxygen needs for COVID-19 patients were lower. However, Fauci also cautioned that the new variant’s apparent less severity is likely to be neutralized by how quickly it’s transmitting.

Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor said the problem that they do not want to get smug about is that having such a high number of new COVID-19 cases might override an absolute decrease in severity.

According to the NYC Health and Mental Hygiene Department, the City has had 114 new COVID-19 hospitalizations daily over the recent week. Based on figures from the American Academy of Pediatricians, as of Dec. 16, nearly 1.9 percent of all coronavirus-related hospital admissions in New York City have been children’s. Also, the percentage seems to have held justly throughout this month.