New data from South Africa show that about 10 percent of those hospitalized with the coronavirus' omicron variant are age 2 or younger, marking the first time young children seem to be at risk from the virus.

But doctors warn it’s too early to say what that could mean, and some Triangle parents said Tuesday that they aren't panicking over the new twist to the ongoing pandemic.

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"I’m not particularly concerned about it. We pretty much isolate ourselves for the most part, unless we’re here at the park," Nicole Vincent said as she watched her 3-year-old son, Elijah, swinging in Raleigh's Pullen Park.

"You can’t stop living entirely, but we try to limit the exposure as much as we can," said Merrily Moorhouse, who was at Pullen Park with her 2½-year-old daughter, Esme. "You never know if it’s going to be an isolated thing. Maybe it will just stay in that [South Africa] area. You can hope, but I would say [we're] not too worried."

Health professionals said younger children may be admitted to hospitals in South Africa at higher rates out of an abundance of caution.

"They are definitely putting out very early data. You're looking at very small numbers," said Jessica Dixon, an infection prevention specialist at WakeMed. "It's definitely too early to panic, whether you're talking about children under the age of 2 or any of the rest of us. This is just something right now that, I think, we have to be very mindful of."

Duke University is part of Pfizer's vaccine trial for children between 6 months old and 5 years old, who aren't currently eligible to be vaccinated. Duke pediatrics professor Dr. Mike Smith said all of the children enrolled in the trial there have received their second shot, and Pfizer is going through the safety data before submitting its findings to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"We're not talking about tomorrow or next month or, you know, kind of any early Christmas gifts for anybody with COVID vaccine, but we're actually pretty close," Smith said.

In the meantime, he and Dixon said the key to keeping young children safe is to maintain the same precautions people have been urged to follow throughout the pandemic.

"The No. 1 thing you can do to protect your kids is to vaccinate all the people around them," Dixon said. "That is what creates that bubble for your kids to say your chances of getting it are considerably lower."

Smith also urged school districts to maintain or reinstate mask mandates to keep younger students – and older students who aren't vaccinated – safe.

"We know masking works, and none of these variants have shown the ability to, you know, permeate through the cloth, even if it's more transmissible and caused more severe disease," he said.

Until vaccines for young children are approved, families said they will be watching omicron closely.

"We take it very seriously. [We're] waiting to see what’s going to happen with this latest one, because who knows," said Richard Murphy, who was at Pullen Park with his 23-month-old grandson, Willem.