Delta variant in children: Covid-19 children’s hospitalizations reached a historic record as schools opened

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And the school year has just begun.

“What we’re seeing right now is extremely troubling,” said Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, an associate professor of pediatrics at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center.

“This virus really goes to people who are not vaccinated. And among those people are children who do not meet the requirements for the vaccine and children and adolescents who meet the requirements, but who choose not to get it.”

– A maximum of 2,396 children were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Tuesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

– An average of 369 pediatric patients with Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals each day during the week ending Sept. 6, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
– More than 55,000 children have been hospitalized with Covid-19 since August 2020, according to CDC data. Many of these children had no known pre-existing condition.
– Although childhood deaths from covid-19 are still rare, this number is increasing. As of Wednesday, at least 520 children have died, according to CDC data.

Doctors say it is critical to protect children from the Delta variant, not only for the sake of their health, but to preserve in-person learning and help prevent more aggressive variants from shrinking across the country again.

252,000 new pediatric cases in one week

Since the last school year, a more contagious variant, Alpha, has been replaced by an even more contagious variant, Delta, as the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US.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, “pediatric cases have increased exponentially, with more than 750,000 cases added between Aug. 5 and Sept. 2,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said.
How can they help students dodge the Delta variant before, during and after school

“Last week about 252,000 cases were added, the largest number of minor cases in a week since the pandemic began.”

Children now account for more than 26% of new cases of Covid-19, according to the AAP.

And more pediatric cases have led to more children being hospitalized with Covid-19, said Dr. Jon McCullers, chief pediatrician at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in cases over the last four weeks, which roughly corresponds to the time the school came in,” McCullers said Wednesday.

“Interestingly, we are seeing about three times the number of hospitalizations we saw during our peak period during the winter.”

It’s not just about hospitalizing children with pre-existing conditions

Nearly half, 46.4%, of children hospitalized with Covid-19 between March 2020 and June 2021 had no known underlying disease, according to CDC data from nearly 100 U.S. counties.

And the Delta variant is further annihilating the myth that healthy children cannot be beaten hard.

Previously, “most of the children I’ve seen who get really sick (with Covid-19) have been children with other comorbid diseases or conditions,” said Dr. Susannah Hills, a pediatric respiratory surgeon at the Covid Medical Center. Columbia University.

“But now, the difference with this Delta variant is that we see that children who don’t necessarily have comorbid diseases also end up in the hospital.”

More children receive MIS-C

In some cases, children who start with mild symptoms or no 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 parts of the body become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs,” he says. the CDC.
A children's hospital is approaching capacity in the middle of the Delta variant

It happens when “the virus induces your body to produce an immune response against your own blood vessels,” which can cause inflammation of the blood vessels, said pediatrician Paul Offit, director of the Hospital’s Vaccine Education Center. Philadelphia Infant.

At least 4,661 cases of MIS-C have been reported, including 41 deaths, according to the CDC.

Many of the children with MIS-C do not get very sick with Covid-19.

“Usually, children are picked up incidentally (coronavirus). Someone in the family was infected, a friend was infected, so they had a PCR test. It’s positive. … It’s okay,” Offit said.

“Then a month passes and they develop high fever. And there is evidence of lung, liver, kidney or heart damage. That’s when they get to our hospital.”

Pediatrician: For the sake of children, continue wearing the mask

The CDC said 99% of patients with MIS-C had tested positive for coronavirus and the other 1% had contact with someone with Covid-19.

The mean age of patients with MIS-C was 9 years.

“CDC is working to learn more about why some children and teens develop MIS-C after having COVID-19 or contacting someone with COVID-19, while others do not,” the CDC says.

“From what we know now about MIS-C, the best way to protect your child is by taking daily actions to prevent your child and the entire household from contracting the virus that causes COVID-19.”

How to protect your children from the Delta variant

The best steps parents can take are vaccinating and vaccinating children from the age of 12, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.

And even if a parent is completely vaccinated, there is little chance that they can detect an advanced asymptomatic infection and unknowingly transmit the virus to their children.

That’s why it’s recommended that all parents of young children wear masks indoors, Walensky said.

For children too young to be vaccinated, it’s important to “surround them with vaccinated people,” he said.

Long Covid can leave lasting impacts on children

Long-term complications of Covid-19 may be important for children, even for some who initially had mild or no symptoms, the American Academy of Pediatrics said.
Children can struggle with the complications of Covid-19 for months

All pediatric patients who tested positive should have at least one follow-up exam with a pediatrician, the AAP said.

Pediatricians should monitor for residual or long-term problems with Covid-19, such as respiratory symptoms, which may last for three months or more; heart problems, including a type of heart inflammation known as myocarditis; cognitive problems such as “brain fog”; headache; fatigue and mental health problems, the AAP said.

The group of pediatricians said children with moderate or severe Covid-19 may be at increased risk for later heart disease.

Protecting children from Covid-19 is key to keeping them in schools

With the highly contagious Delta variant, the CDC recommends that students from kindergarten through 12th grade, along with teachers and visitors, wear masks to school.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends masks in schools for all ages 2 and up.

“Our children deserve to have full-time, in-person, safe learning with established prevention measures. And that includes masks for everyone in schools,” Walensky said.

According to experts, schools should manage an outbreak of Covid-19

Some students return to schools for the first time in a year. But long-awaited learning in the classroom can be derailed quickly by an infection or outbreak.

In Mississippi and Florida, thousands of students who have just started their school year have already had to go into quarantine.

And it doesn’t take long for Covid-19 to close a school again. Even one case can affect students, teachers and staff.

“We need adults to run schools, and if my adults are sick or need quarantine, I don’t have adults present to provide education,” said Carlee Simon, superintendent of public schools in Alachua County, Florida.

“When we have families who don’t want to have masks on their child, what they do is not just increase the chances of them being quarantined,” Simon said.

If a student becomes infected, “they will also have other students who have masks that should also be quarantined.”

“Everyone wants to move forward. No one wants to have masks forever,” Simon said. But “we would like to be safe and have instructional time with our students.”

In addition to masks in schools, the CDC recommends applying no other strategy, such as improving ventilation, physical distancing, and testing on a screening basis.

Children can accidentally help stimulate new variants

Protecting children from Covid-19 can help everyone in the long run, doctors say.

As the coronavirus spreads and reproduces in young people, it is more likely to mutate, which can lead to even more contagious variants or those that can bypass vaccines.
Unvaccinated people are

“That’s, of course, the concern,” Walensky said.

Fully vaccinated people are less likely to become infected with the Delta variant.
But unvaccinated people (including unvaccinated children) are more susceptible to infection. And without knowing it, they can help with creating new variants, Offit said.

“If we continue to allow the spread of this virus, we will continue to allow the creation of these variants,” he said.

“We will not be able to stop this pandemic until we have a significant percentage of the vaccinated population.”

The death of Covid-19 in children should not be ignored, says the CDC chief

Although children are much less likely to die from Covid-19 than adults, deaths are still significant, Walensky said.

According to CDC data, at least 520 U.S. children have died from Covid-19. For the 2019-20 flu season, the CDC reported 199 confirmed pediatric flu deaths and approximately 434 pediatric flu deaths.

One of the reasons Covid-19 is more deadly to children than other infectious diseases is that many children are vaccinated against other diseases, said Dr. James Campbell, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. .

Why these parents volunteered for their young children for Covid-19 vaccine trials

“No one dies of polio, no one dies of measles in the United States. No one dies of diphtheria,” Campbell said.

But while children ages 12 to 17 can get a vaccine against Covid-19, many have not. And it’s not clear exactly when a vaccine for children under 12 can be authorized.

Rebecca Calloway’s 7-year-old daughter, Georgia, is one of thousands of young children testing several doses of Covid-19 vaccines to make sure they are safe and effective before they are allowed.

One of the reasons Calloway enrolled Georgia in the pediatric vaccine trial is that he recently lost his 3-year-old daughter to another unexpected illness (type 1 diabetes) and doesn’t want more families to lose. a son before Covid. 19.

While infant deaths from Covid-19 and type 1 diabetes are rare, Calloway said, “You don’t want to be that statistic.”

CNN’s Deidre McPhillips and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.

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