Hundreds of children admitted to Arizona hospitals for COVID-19

PHOENIX – “Parents, please make the right choices to keep your children and the community safe,” are the words of a spokesperson for Banner Health, as she tells hundreds of children with COVID-19 in Arizona are admitted to hospitals every month.

In one Twitter feed On Sunday, January 17, Becky Armendariz, public relations specialist for Banner Health, said hundreds of children with COVID-19 are hospitalized each month and the number of cases increases between December and January.

She did not provide details on the severity of children’s illnesses, but calls on parents to make responsible decisions about the health of their little ones.

Armendariz said she wrote the tweet while looking out the window and watched a youth football tournament with “Children and unmasked referees. Parents with masks under chin, chatting / clapping nearby others.”

She shared data by Jama Network showing how pediatric numbers linked to COVID-19 have evolved in Arizona. Jama Network looked at trends in which children are diagnosed with COVID-19 in 22 states, including Arizona.

“At the start of the study, the average cumulative hospitalization rate per 100,000 children was 2.0, rising to 17.2 at the end of the study,” the study said.

At the end of the study, Arizona ranked as one of the top two hot spots for children with COVID-19. Hawaii and New Hampshire had the lowest rates at 4.3 and 3.4 per 100,000 respectively and South Dakota and Arizona had the highest rates at 33.7 and 32.8 per 100,000 . “

The study looked at the numbers between the dates of May 15, 2020 and November 15, 2020.

Newborn baby in Arizona contracts severe case of COVID-19

Maria Espinoza says her newborn baby was hospitalized for several days after being diagnosed with COVID-19, and doctors say, unfortunately, more severe cases of children are on the rise.

“My heart broke. I cried every day, ”Espinoza said as her 27-day-old baby had a high fever, moaning all night and refusing to sleep.

“I took him to two different hospitals. The first one told me he was just constipated. They said, ‘Don’t worry, take him home.'”

Her symptoms continued to worsen. In the middle of the night, Espinoza took him to the children’s hospital.

“Mother’s intuition, I was like, ‘No, there is something really wrong with my baby,'” she said. Indeed, there was something wrong. He had COVID-19.

Family doctor Dr Andrew Carroll says the growing number of children with COVID is “quite large”, adding: “I know from reports from my pediatric colleagues that they are starting to see their hospitals be overwhelmed by children with COVID. “

One of the reasons for the drastic increase in child hospitalizations, he said, is that more and more schools are resuming in-person learning and continuing to play sports.

Another reason, he says, is that newer variants of the virus from the UK and Africa spread faster in children.

“When you have something that’s so contagious, increases by about 50%, these people who thought they couldn’t get sick, these people are getting sick now,” he explained.

As for Espinoza, she says she knows exactly how her newborn baby was exposed to COVID-19. On Christmas Day, a relative stopped by who had been tested for the virus without telling anyone, they later found out his test had come back positive.

Now she is warning others, especially parents, to take this virus seriously.

“If you think you might have COVID, stay home, go into quarantine. Because my son could have died just for that person who came,” she says.

Espinoza says she also received COVID-19 from this parent, as did her two other children. According to her, one of them had symptoms, the other did not.

Doctors say the virus affects every child differently.

Learn more about the study here.
Learn more about Arizona’s response to the pandemic here.

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