Doctors feared more children would get hit hard by Covid-19 as the Delta variant stretches out across the country. And it’s happening just as the school year is getting started.
Since the last school year, a more contagious variant — Alpha — has been replaced by an even more contagious variant — Delta — as the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US.
Now, “child cases have increased exponentially, with over 750,000 cases added between August 5 and September 2,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said.
“What we’re seeing now is extremely concerning,” said Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, associate professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “This virus is really going for the people who are not vaccinated. And among those people are children who don’t qualify for the vaccine and children and teens who qualify but are choosing not to get it.”
The latest statistics are as follows:
— 2,396 children were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Tuesday, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
— An average of 369 pediatric Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospitals every day during the week ending September 6, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
— According to CDC data. More than 55,000 children have been hospitalized with Covid-19 since August 2020, Many of those children had no known preexisting conditions.
— Childhood Covid-19 deaths are rare, but that number is increasing. As of Wednesday, at least 520 children have died, according to CDC data.
Doctors say it’s critical to protect children against the Delta variant — not just for the sake of their health, but to preserve in-person learning and help prevent more aggressive variants from setting the entire country back.
Children now make up more than 26% of new Covid-19 cases, the AAP said.
And more pediatric cases has led to more kids hospitalized with Covid-19, said Dr. Jon McCullers, pediatrician-in-chief at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.
“We have seen a significant surge in cases roughly for the last four weeks, roughly corresponding to the time when school got in,” McCullers said Wednesday. “Interestingly, we’re seeing about three times the number of hospitalizations that we saw during our during our peak during the winter.”
Almost half — 46.4% — of children hospitalized with Covid-19 between March 2020 and June 2021 had no known underlying condition, according to CDC data from almost 100 US counties.
And the Delta variant is further annihilating the myth that healthy kids can’t get hit hard.
Previously, “the majority of kids that I’ve seen get really sick (with Covid-19) have been kids with other illnesses or comorbid conditions,” said Dr. Susannah Hills, a pediatric airway surgeon at Columbia University Medical Center. “But now, the difference with this Delta variant is that we’re seeing kids who may not necessarily have comorbid conditions also end up in the hospital.”
In some cases, children who start with mild or no symptoms from Covid-19 end up hospitalized weeks or months later with a condition called MIS-C — multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. MIS-C is “a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19 in which different body parts become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs,” the CDC says.
It happens when “the virus induces your body to make an immune response against your own blood vessels” — which can cause inflammation of the blood vessels, said pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.
At least 4,661 cases of MIS-C had been reported, including 41 deaths, the CDC said.
Many of the children with MIS-C don’t start off very sick with Covid-19. “Usually children are picked up incidentally as having (coronavirus). Someone in the family was infected, a friend was infected, so they got a PCR test. And they’re found to be positive. … Then they’re fine,” Offit said. “Then a month goes by, and they develop a high fever. And evidence of lung, liver, kidney or heart damage. That’s when they come to our hospital.”
The CDC said 99% of MIS-C patients had tested positive for coronavirus, and the other 1% had contact with someone with Covid-19. The median age of patients with MIS-C was 9 years old.
“CDC is working to learn more about why some children and adolescents develop MIS-C after having COVID-19 or contact with someone with COVID-19, while others do not,” the CDC says.
“Based on what we know now about MIS-C, the best way you can protect your child is by taking everyday actions to prevent your child and the entire household from getting the virus that causes COVID-19.”
The best steps parents can take include getting vaccinated and vaccinating children ages 12 and up, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. And even if a parent is fully vaccinated, there’s a small chance they could catch an asymptomatic breakthrough infection and unknowingly pass the virus to their children. That’s why it’s a good idea for all parents of young children to wear masks in public indoor settings, Walensky said. For kids too young to be vaccinated, it’s important “to surround them with vaccinated people,” she said.