Abstract
Due to the shortage of pediatric hospital beds in general and due to the large annual burden of hospital admissions for common respiratory tract infections, such as influenza or RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] in particular, it can be expected that hospitalization of children with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV‑2 infections will face hospitals with an even more tense situation than usual in the winter 2020/2021. This tenuous shortage may touch various aspects but in the first place it will affect isolation and cohorting. In addition, this shortage will not only apply to acutely ill children with viral respiratory tract infections but all children with need for hospital care, either chronically ill or e.g. being premature babies or newborns. Therefore, approaches are required which on the one hand are based on pragmatic grounds but on the other hand fulfill the basics of hygiene and infection control. The recommendations proposed in this statement are intended to give assistance to hospitals for the management of testing, isolation and cohorting of pediatric patients with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV‑2 infections. The most important factor navigating the essential measures is the cumulative incidence of newly diagnosed infections per 100,000 over the last 7 days, which is given by the RKI or the local public health authorities. In the situation of low (<25/100,000) or medium (25-50/100,000) incidence the respective diagnostic measures and hospital admission can be performed under standard hygiene precautions and the children will be cohorted according to their clinical presentation until the results of SARS-CoV‑2 test (or RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] or influenza test) are available. In the situation of high (>50/100,000) incidence the respective diagnostic measures and the admission have to be performed under SARS-CoV‑2 precautions as specified by the RKI, and the children have to be isolated until the results of SARS-CoV‑2 test are available. The assessment of the incidence figures and the respective measures may be adapted by the local public health authorities on an individual basis. In case of shortfalls in admission capacities, the requirement of acute emergency care may necessitate that isolation and cohorting in the hospital will have to be performed temporarily in a less restrictive way than recommended here for standard.