Photo: Getty Images
The number of children hospitalized across the United States with COVID-19 hit a record high on Saturday (August 14). New data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that 1,902 children are currently in the hospital with the coronavirus. Children make up 2.4% of the total hospitalizations across the country.
The surge in cases and hospitalizations has been caused by low vaccination rates and the Delta variant, which is highly transmissible and infects younger people and children. Almost all of the people who have been hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19 are unvaccinated. While there are a small number of breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals, they usually have mild or no symptoms.
The record number of hospitalizations is leaving many hospitals on the verge of running out of ICU and pediatric beds.
"We're seeing a lot of children who are very, very sick admitted to our hospital. We have almost twice as many right now as we did at the previous worst part of this pandemic, which was probably in January," Dr. David Kimberlin, the director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, told CNN.
"These children are coming in fighting for breath, fighting for the ability to basically get through this devastating illness, many of them are on ventilators, maybe a quarter or so on ventilators or heart-lung bypass machines," he added.
The rapid rise in pediatric cases comes as schools prepare to reopen for the fall. In several states, local and state officials are sparring over whether schools should mandate masks for all students. In Florida, several school districts defied Governor Ron. DeSantis' executive order that gives parents the final say over whether their children will wear masks by requiring masks for all students and staff members.
In Texas, a judge blocked Governor Gregg Abbott's order that barred counties from instituting mask mandates.