RE: 30 % UP let's do a 50 %20 Aug 2021 13:31
AMERICA
Covid Out of control
News.......
Two weeks ago, only two or three children a day would come into Dr. Nick Hysmith’s hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, with Covid-19, usually ones who were admitted for other reasons, like broken bones.
This week, he is seeing as many as 28 children under 18 a day, some of them landing in the intensive care unit.
Around the country, child hospitalizations for Covid-19 have increased to levels not seen since January, when U.S. cases and deaths were at their highest levels, according to the latest government data. Doctors in the hospitals hardest hit by the recent surge say the situation is worse than it was in January.
It happened fast: As of Wednesday, U.S. hospitals were tending to an average of more than 1,200 children a day, twice the number from the end of July and four times from the start of July, according to an NBC News analysis of data released this week by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The data show the U.S. facing another peak in child hospitalizations as the delta variant of the coronavirus hits communities hesitant to get vaccinated. And while unvaccinated adults are filling ICUs in parts of the South, minors in those areas are filling up the pediatric wings at an alarming pace.
Hysmith, who is medical director of infection prevention at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, said the influx was alarming.
“We went from single digits with not really sick kids to 28 kids in a matter of a few weeks, and some of them are quite sick,” he said.
In Shelby County, which includes Memphis, 37 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, compared to Tennessee’s full vaccination rate of 40 percent.
An increase in cases of respiratory syncytial virus, an illness that primarily affects children and has symptoms similar to those of Covid, has also made things worse, Hysmith said.
“We're sitting at about 95-97 percent occupancy right now, which is normally where we are in the dead of winter,” he said. “So that's concerning, because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks.”
The HHS data show that pediatric hospitalizations when adjusted for population are highest in Alabama, Florida, Delaware, Louisiana and Oklahoma; in all but Delaware, full vaccination rates are lower than the national rate.
Recommended
U.S. NEWSToxic algae bloom considered in deaths of California family, pet dog
Other data show an accelerating trend, including a study released this month by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which showed that Covid cases among children rose in the first week of August to more than 93,800 from a low of about 8,400 in June. Reuters reported that the U.S. hit a record of 1,900 children hospitalized on Saturday.
Hospitalizations are rising as some children return to the classroom in an acrimonious back-to-school kickoff that has politicians, parents and school officials fighting over mask mandates.
Masks to be worn save liv
Sign In
Follow the stocks
