Children Infected With COVID-19 Continues To Spike Due To Delta Variant, CDC Says

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims that the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is rising as the delta variant spreads. CDC noted the increase particularly visible in areas with poor immunization rates.

Doctor’s hands in protection gloves putting COVID-19 test swab into kid’s mouth in hospital. (Photo: NPR)

According to the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the rise in hospitalizations is not attributable to the delta variant making young people worse than earlier versions. Rather, there is a lot more transmission, which means that more youngsters are exposed and infected.

Pediatric COVID-19 Cases More Prevalent In Community With Poor Vaccination Rates

At a White House Covid briefing on Thursday, Walensky stated that more children have Covid-19 because the illness is more prevalent in the community. The total number of children admitted to the hospital with Covid continues to below. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children accounted for just 2.3 percent of all Covid-related hospitalizations as of Aug. 26.

Read Also: COVID-19 Update: Pediatric Cases In Arkansas Increase, Hospitalizations Continue To Drop

However, the increase is particularly concerning when schools reopen, with the majority of young children and teenagers still unvaccinated and, in many instances, unmasked. The incidence of new Covid hospitalizations among children has surpassed the winter high, CDC statistics show. Since the preceding seven-day average, the hospitalization rate has increased by more than 11 percent.

According to Walensky, the increases in pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization are particularly noticeable in regions where immunization is not widely available.

Pediatric COVID-19 Cases In Places With Higher Vaccination Rates Lesser

Walensky said that cases, ER visits, and hospitalizations are substantially fewer among children in areas with greater vaccination rates. She cited the two studies that the CDC plans to release on Friday. One of the studies that looked at data from 14 states noted that weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among children and adolescents rose almost five-fold from late June to mid-August.

According to the research, the proportions of hospitalized children and adolescents with severe illness were comparable before and throughout the time of Delta predominance, suggesting that the highly transmissible variation does not seem to cause more severe disease in children than earlier strains.

The research also discovered that hospitalization rates among unvaccinated teenagers eligible for the vaccine were ten times greater than those who were completely immunized. The second research found that coronavirus-related emergency department visits and hospital admissions for children and adolescents were greatest in states with the lowest vaccination coverage over two weeks in August.

Despite the fact that we are finding more instances in children and more overall cases, Walensky said per U.S. News and World Report that these investigations showed that the severity of illness in children has not risen.

Related Article: COVID-19 In Arkansas: State Notes 2,360 New Coronavirus Cases, 16 Deaths