Clinical Epidemiology of Pediatric COVID-19 Delta Variant Cases From North Sumatra, Indonesia

R Lia Kusumawati; Inke Nadia Diniyanti Lubis; Meutia Ayuputeri Kumaheri; Ariel Pradipta; Kiatichai Faksri; Mutiara Mutiara; Anuraj H Shankar; Tryna Tania

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.810404

Clinical Epidemiology of Pediatric COVID-19 Delta Variant Cases From North Sumatra, Indonesia

Front Pediatr. 2022 Apr 1:10:810404. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.810404. eCollection 2022.

Authors

R Lia Kusumawati^{1

2}, Inke Nadia Diniyanti Lubis³, Meutia Ayuputeri Kumaheri⁴, Ariel Pradipta⁴, Kiatichai Faksri^{5

6}, Mutiara Mutiara², Anuraj H Shankar^{4

7

8}, Tryna Tania²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia.
² Microbiology and Biomolecular Laboratory, Murni Teguh Memorial Hospital, Medan, Indonesia.
³ Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia.
⁴ Genomik Solidaritas Indonesia Laboratory, Jakarta, Indonesia.
⁵ Department of Microbiology, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
⁶ Research and Diagnostic Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
⁷ Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
⁸ Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Abstract

The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) dominated the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2021. Here we report the Delta variant among pediatric cases in North Sumatra, Indonesia, from June to July 2021. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) from 18 new COVID-19 pediatric patients showed that six were B.1.459 and six were B.1.466.2, known variants in Indonesia in clade 20A. Six were the Delta variant B.1.617.2 of clade 21A, with five on one branch and one on a distant branch consistent with that patient's geographic separation, suggesting at least two introductions to the region. Variants tended to be spatially clustered, and four children with Delta variant had an adult infected household member, all of whom had lower real-time polymerase chain reaction cycle threshold (Ct) values compared with the child. No temporal trends were observed for Ct. These data support a paradigm shift with children being highly susceptible to the Delta variant and a priority for vaccination.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; children; infection; pandemic.