Data that are surfacing on social media from the area in South Africa hard-hit by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has shown a high number of hospital admissions of infants under 2 years old, raising concerns that the variant may pose risks to young children.

Hindustan Times reported that scientists from South Africa have said they cannot yet confirm a link between Omicron and the high admissions of infants, which could be due to other factors.

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Here is what we do and do not know about the issue.

What is causing concern?

The data, released by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), shows that 52 infants under age 2 were among 452 Covid-19 patients admitted in Tshwane – the metropolitan area that includes the capital Pretoria – in the period between November 14 and 28, a higher number than for any other age group, Reuters said.

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However, taking the size of the populations of the various age groups into account, the risk of admission was higher for people over age 60.

Have the admissions been linked to Omicron?

No. Reuters reported that only a small percentage of positive test samples in South Africa are being submitted for genomic sequencing to detect the variant due to limited capacity. “That means we cannot know for sure whether the infants in hospital were infected with Omicron,” NICD scientists have said.

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There is also uncertainty about whether all of the infants included in the data are infected with COVID-19, as not all are tested for the virus, scientists said.

For practical reasons, infants who present with respiratory symptoms are treated as if they had COVID-19, but they could be sick with another disease such as flu.