COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Children Hit Record-High In US

COVID-19 hospitalizations among children are now hitting record highs across the United States amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. According to experts, the situation could get worse as schools begin to reopen in the country.

New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that new hospital admissions among children with the novel coronavirus have hit the highest levels since the country began tracking pediatric cases in 2020.

In the week ending Aug. 22, COVID-19 hospitalizations among kids hit an average of 303 new admissions per day. While children only account for 1.8% of all coronavirus-related hospitalizations across the U.S., more than 4,400 have developed a rare and serious syndrome caused by the virus, which has killed 37.

This prompted experts to warn against a surge in pediatric admissions until a vaccine is made available to younger children and school districts begin mandating strict protocols.

“It is scary to see the number and severity of Covid-19 cases rising in children with the Delta variant and so many kids still left unprotected,” Dr. Nusheen Ameenuddin, a community pediatrician at Mayo Clinic, said, according to CNBC.

At Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, at least 15 children have been admitted with COVID-19, six of whom were placed in intensive care units on Monday alone.

In Louisiana, 63 of 6,416 children who tested positive for COVID-19 this week were admitted to the hospital. An infant, under the age of one, died after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, as of Aug. 19, over 4.59 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. It further said that health officials in the U.S. recorded 180,000 new confirmed cases involving children in the past week. They now account for 22.4% of cases reported weekly.

“180,000 children in the last week have tested positive. The highest we’ve ever seen for children has been 211,000. That was back in January. So this Delta variant is changing the game,” Dr. Mona Amin, a board-certified physician, told Yahoo Finance.

Children between the ages of 5 and 11 are not yet eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the process of authorizing a vaccine for the age group may not be completed until the end of 2021, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN.

COVID-19 has so far infected more than 38,223,200 people and claimed over 632,270 lives in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University data.