Elementary school children seeing critically ill children contract COVID alongside other viruses

SALT LAKE CITY – As doctors recognize COVID-19 typically causes minor symptoms in children, officials at Primary Children’s Hospital say they are grappling with an influx of patients with coronavirus and other respiratory infections – often at the same time.

A teenage patient died in hospital last week from COVID-19.

“It was absolutely devastating for the staff here,” Dr Andrew Pavia said at a press conference on Thursday.

Pediatric infectious disease expert and director of hospital epidemiology at Primary Children says children’s hospitals nationwide – including Utah’s only children’s hospital – are “filled to the brim” and functioning with the most extreme peak capacity. This includes placing two children in each room and canceling major surgeries to make room in the intensive care unit, Pavia said.

The strain is not due to COVID-19 itself, but a combination of it with seasonal cases of RSV and trauma. The coronavirus is the “camel’s back-breaking straw in the healthcare system,” Pavia said.

Jacob Ferrin, RN in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Primary Children’s Hospital, noted that the regional hospital is seen as a “last line of defense” for children not only in Beehive State, but between Denver in Los Angeles and Phoenix in Canada.

In critical cases of adults, this is often due to age-related health issues, Ferrin said. But for children, either something is “poorly constructed” or something has happened to put them at greater risk.

Children hospitalized with inflammation from other viruses sometimes also contract COVID-19, extending their stay in intensive care, Ferrin said.

“When kids have so much inflammation in their body, everything hurts. Their eyes can get very red, it hurts when you touch their arm,” he said.

This story will be updated.

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