Mississippi children are in intensive care units with COVID-19

• Seven children in Mississippi are battling COVID-19 in intensive care units, a senior health official said.
• Two of them are in intensive care units on ventilators.
• Experts fear Mississippi’s low vaccination rate may put children at greater risk.

Seven children are currently battling COVID-19 in intensive care units across Mississippi as state health officials warn of an increase in the Delta variant, ABC News reported.

Two of the children are on ventilators, public health official Dr Thomas Dobbs told ABC in a statement.

It is not clear whether the children, ranging in age from under a year to 17, have any pre-existing health issues.

Read more: Even medical professionals have lost faith in the CDC. It is a public health crisis.

Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with only a third of the population fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Experts warn that low immunization rates put children at greater risk, especially since they have to go back to school in several weeks.

Dr. Jennifer Bryan, chair of the board of directors of the Mississippi State Medical Association, told CBS News, “In this phase of the pandemic, there are really two life choices: that’s to vaccinate, or you will catch COVID. That’s it. contagious of a virus. ”

Hospitalizations and the number of cases have continued to increase in recent weeks as the Delta variant, also known as B.1.617, continues to increase.

Since the start of the pandemic, Mississippi has reported more than 325,000 cases and nearly 7,500 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Dr Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said his hospital had seen a “significant increase” in the number of pediatric patients and they appeared to be more symptomatic than children who fell ill earlier in the pandemic, ABC reported.

“These appear to be more classic COVID symptoms – fever, cough, respiratory illness,” he said, according to ABC News. “I suspect that’s probably because this Delta variant imports a bit more serious disease into the pediatric population than the earlier strains that were circulating.”

While the Delta variant may make COVID-19 more common in children, more serious infections are still rare, Insider reported previously.