Highlights About two thirds of caregivers intend to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Most common reason for acceptance was to protect the child. Most common reason for refusal was the vaccine’s novelty. Child age, chronic illness, vaccination history affects willingness. Caregiver gender, vaccination history, concern about infection affect willingness.

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While using numerous different sources, parents in this study mostly use and trust traditional sources of health information. Scores of respondents use the Internet to seek health information for their children and would value easier access to Internet sources that they trust.

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Five percent of our PED visits are return visits of children seen in the 72 hours before the visit. Younger children, with high acuity who come to the ED in the late evening hours, are most likely to return to the ED.

BackgroundPublic health mitigation strategies in British Columbia during the pandemic included stay-at-home orders and closure of non-essential services. While most primary physicians’ offices were closed, hospitals prepared for a pandemic surge and emergency departments (EDs) stayed open to provide care for urgent needs. We sought to determine whether ED paediatric presentations prior and during the COVID-19 pandemic changed and review acuity compared with seasonal adjusted prior year.MethodsWe analysed records from 18 EDs in British Columbia, Canada, serving 60% of the population. We included children 0–16 years old and excluded those with no recorded acuity or discharge disposition and those left without being seen by a physician. We compared prepandemic (before the first COVID-19 case), early pandemic (after first COVID-19 case) and peak pandemic (during public health emergency) periods as well as a similar time from the previous year.ResultsA reduction of 57% and 70% in overall visits was recorded in the children’s hospital ED and the general hospitals EDs, respectively. Average daily visits declined significantly during the peak-pandemic period (167.44±40.72) compared with prepandemic period (543.53±58.8). Admission rates increased mainly due to the decrease in the rate of visits with lower acuity. Children with complaints of ‘fever’ and ‘gastrointestinal’ symptoms had both the largest overall volume and per cent reduction in visits between peak-pandemic and prior year (79% and 74%, respectively).ConclusionPaediatric emergency medicine attendances were reduced to one-third of normal numbers during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in British Columbia, Canada, with the reduction mainly seen in minor illnesses that do not usually require admission.

To control the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019, many hospitals have strict visitor restriction policies. These policies often prohibit both parents from visiting at the same time or having grandparents or other family members visit at all. We discuss cases in which such policies created ethical dilemmas and possibly called for compassionate exceptions from the general rules.

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