Wow look at new hospitalizations among children in this wave. Already at the Winter peak.
Children have a lower hospitalization rate per infection than adults, but they can still be hospitalized for Covid. SARS-COV-2 has ~2x the hospitalization rate of seasonal Flu per infection in kids, but also has a significantly higher attack rate than seasonal Flu. As such through May, the CDC estimates we have had ~200k hospitalizations of children when we typically only have ~50k hospitalizations for children in a Flu season.
In addition, MIS-C is a rare condition that has occurred in some children infected by the virus, especially older children. At least 4.2k children have gotten hospitalized for MIS-C. Though it remains extremely rare per infection (~.015%).
It is a challenging time to be a parent. If your child is vaccine eligible, please vaccinate them. In this age group the vaccine is extremely effective and the benefits more than exceed the costs. If they are not, see if your child is comfortable wearing a N95 mask or similar in high risk settings. If you are vaccinated you've gone a long way of reducing household transmission to them.
The CDC estimates about 37% of kids already got Covid through May. About 15% have been vaccinated. So about half of kids likely have some immunity.