Director of Health: Children 12 and under accounted for 12% of Allegheny County covid cases last month

Covid-19 cases among children too young to be vaccinated continued to rise last month in Allegheny County, officials said on Wednesday.

Doctors have long feared an increase in pediatric covid cases during the start of the school year. This prompted the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend universal masking among students and school staff.

Cases among children, especially those who are too young to receive the vaccine, have increased even without adding school to the mix: in Allegheny County, children 12 and under accounted for 12% of all cases in August, against 9% in June. In whole numbers, 67 children in this age group tested positive in June and 773 tested positive in August.

The increase is not limited to children not eligible for the vaccine.

Data from the health department shows that cases among all children aged 0 to 18 have increased since the start of the summer: 148 cases in June, 277 in July and 1,127 in August.

Pennsylvania Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam last week issued a public health order mandating the wearing of masks in schools. It’s a decision applauded by Allegheny County Health Director Dr Debra Bogen, who is a pediatrician.

The order went into effect on Tuesday.

“I don’t expect to see an impact on school cases for at least a few weeks,” Bogen said.

Beyond that, she said, whether it has any impact at all “will be determined by adherence to the masking that takes place in educational settings.”

The warrant sparked protests locally and statewide, mostly among parents, although some students demonstrated at several schools in Westmoreland County Tuesday morning.

“We are in a particularly risky time of a pandemic for children, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated,” said Dr John Williams, head of pediatric infectious diseases at UPMC. “Contrary to what many have heard, children get sick with covid and they can pass the virus on to family, friends and other members of the community.”

Williams, speaking at an independent UPMC briefing Wednesday morning, said the healthcare system is seeing an increase in cases among children, but “it’s nowhere near as serious as” the increase pediatric cases in other states, especially those with low overall vaccination rates.

“We don’t want it to get so bad,” he said. “One of the main ways not to get so bad is to protect our children with masks and vaccinations.”

Allegheny County reported more than 400 new cases of covid on Wednesday.

More than half are considered probable cases, meaning the diagnosis is based on an antigen test or symptoms in a person who has been in close contact with a known case. Bogen said the increase in rapid home tests is behind the increase in cases considered “probable”.

Forty-six people in Allegheny County died from covid in August, up from 11 in July and 26 in June.