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After declining in early summer, cases of COVID-19 in children have steadily increased in recent weeks – just as many children are returning to class.
In a recently released weekly report, which compiles state-by-state data on COVID-19 cases in children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) found that nearly 94,000 new Childhood COVID-19 cases were reported last week, a “substantial” increase continuing.
Some of the worst numbers are in Louisiana and Florida, but could worsen elsewhere quickly, as public health officials voice concerns about the highly contagious delta variant amid continued hesitation over vaccines.
“It’s not your grandfather’s COVID,” Dr. Mark Kline, chief medical officer at New Orleans Children’s Hospital, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday. Louisiana faces the nation’s highest rate of new COVID-19 cases, with Children’s Hospital in New Orleans describing what it considers “an epidemic of very young children.”
“We are hospitalizing a record number of children,” Kline continued. “Half of the children in our hospital today are under two years old. Most of the rest are between five and ten years old – too young to be vaccinated yet.
In Florida, the state with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 pediatric hospitalizations in the country, 179 patients are receiving care, according to federal data. As of Monday morning, the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami had a child on a ventilator.
Dr Marcos Mestre, vice president and chief medical officer of the hospital, told ABC News that in recent weeks his teams have seen a “significant increase” in pediatric cases of COVID-19. He said some children are alone in the hospital because their parents, also unvaccinated, are battling COVID-19 at another hospital.
“It is difficult,” he said, and it places “undue social stress on the child, as you can imagine, without the parents.”
Texas follows Florida closely with 161 confirmed pediatric patients hospitalized statewide, and in California, 98 confirmed pediatric patients receiving care.
It comes as the country’s daily average of cases for Americans has risen to nearly 100,000 cases per day over the past four days – up 31.7% last week and nearly nine times higher than the mid-June average. For children 17 and under, the per capita pediatric hospitalization rate is 3.75 times higher than it was just a month ago – now equal to its pandemic peak, in January 2021.
While serious illness from COVID-19 remains “rare” in children, experts say the upward trend is concerning.
“While the serious consequences of COVID-19 infection in pediatric populations remain relatively small compared to adults, the current exponential growth in hospitalizations is a very disturbing trend,” said Dr. John Brownstein, epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News. donor. “As the remaining population ineligible for the vaccine, children will, unfortunately, be the main vectors for the spread of the virus, creating a risk for themselves and the rest of the population. “
The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve vaccines for children under 12, leaving a large population of young people susceptible to COVID-19. But following data released by the AAP last week showing the massive increase in COVID-19 cases in children, the organization wrote a letter to the chief of the FDA requesting the authorization of vaccines for the 5 -11 years as soon as possible.
“We understand that the FDA recently worked with Pfizer and Moderna to double the number of children aged 5 to 11 included in clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccines. While we appreciate this cautious step to collect more data On safety, we urge the FDA to carefully consider the impact of this decision on the timing of the authorization of a vaccine for this age group, ”wrote Dr. Lee Savio Beers, president of the AAP.
“Put simply, the delta variant has created a new and urgent risk for children and adolescents across the country, as has also been the case for unvaccinated adults,” she said.
Beers told ABC News Live’s “The Breakdown” on Monday that hospital staff are inundated by the massive increase in COVID-19 cases in children, especially in areas with low immunizations.
“They just see a lot of kids who are very sick with COVID. They see kids in their intensive care units. They see kids who are in pretty severe distress,” she said, reiterating the position of the organization that the FDA could approve vaccines for children 5 to 11 years old based on previous trials.
“We know that [COVID] can be serious in children, so we need to do what we need to do to help prevent the spread and help keep our children and our entire community safe, ”she added.
Dr Ashish Jha, who supports expanding vaccinations for 5 to 11 year olds, reiterated on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday the position widely shared by public health experts that the first The step to getting children back to school safely is to immunize everyone who is eligible.
“Children who cannot get vaccinated, you protect them by making sure everyone around them is vaccinated,” he said.
A recent CDC National Immunization Survey in late July found that among parents of children ages 13 to 17, 49.8% had had their children vaccinated or were definitely planning to do so, 25.4% were “probably vaccinate their children or are not sure “, and 24.8% are reluctant. , “Probably or certainly will not vaccinate children.”
Despite the increase in the delta, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found among unvaccinated adults nearly half, 46%, say they definitely won’t get a vaccine, 15% call it very unlikely and 10% somewhat unlikely. In another question, one in five unvaccinated says news about the variants has made them more likely to receive a jab.
As pediatric hospitalizations increase, especially where vaccination rates are low, Dr Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine has called what is happening in the South a “humanitarian disaster”.
“As schools act as an accelerator, you should assume we’re going to see pediatric intensive care units all over the South completely overwhelmed and even a possibility of small tent towns for sick teens and children,” he said. he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, adding the slope “goes up and up.”
According to the CDC, less than 30% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 15 and only 41% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 17 are fully immunized.
“And now the schools are going to be an extraordinary accelerator,” he added. “If your teenage child is not vaccinated, you have to assume that there is a high probability that this child will catch COVID.”
Leading national infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci is hopeful that full approval for the coronavirus vaccine will be granted by the end of August, he said on Sunday, and predicted the move will spur a new wave of vaccinations.
“I hope – I am not predicting – I hope it will be in the next few weeks. I hope it will be in August,” Fauci said of the full FDA approval on “Meet. the Press ”from NBC. “If so, you’re going to see empowering local businesses, giving mandates that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety and I strongly support that. The time is right. “
But there is opposition – and it could be heard by the Supreme Court.
A group of eight unvaccinated Indiana University students last week appealed to the Supreme Court to block the school’s mandate to vaccinate anyone on campus this fall. They made various arguments as to why the warrant would violate their constitutional rights and increased legal scrutiny, including that it runs counter to the FDA’s emergency use authorization conditions for vaccines – which public health experts hope to change soon. The students asked for a decision by Friday.
Gary Langer, Cheyenne Haslett and Devin Dwyer of ABC News contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2021 ABC News Internet Ventures.
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