Article ID: JJID.2021.896
We report the first pediatric patient infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant in Japan. The patient was a one-year-old boy who resided in Japan. He went abroad from 12 November 2021 to 28 November 2021 with his parents and had no known contact with COVID-19 patients there. His father tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 via quantitative antigen test on arrival at Narita International Airport on 28 November 2021. Because the boy and his mother both tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, they quarantined together at a hotel separately from his father. On 4 December 2021, the boy tested positive by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2 without symptoms and was hospitalized with his mother. He and his father were both found to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The boy had not been vaccinated for COVID-19. The RT-PCR results were negative starting 20 December 2021. The incubation period and required period for negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 RNA of this Omicron variant case were similar to the periods of conventional cases. We have to carefully consider the potential of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant to spread widely among unvaccinated children.
