A 15-year-old Florida teenager is urging those who meet the requirements to receive the COVID-19 vaccine after being hospitalized for days with the virus.
In an interview with CNN, Paulina Velasquez said she was infected with COVID-19 in July and experienced a loss of taste and smell, difficulty breathing, and headaches.
She was not vaccinated against the disease.
A week later she was sent to the hospital where she was placed on a ventilator due to low oxygen levels.
“It was the scariest moment I was told because I didn’t know what to expect. I started asking questions,” his mother, Agnes Velasquez, told CNN.
The network also reported that he had pneumonia. Doctors put her in a medically induced coma and she remained on the ventilator for 11 days. She was later released by the hospital in mid-August.
“It’s a very serious virus. This virus doesn’t pick and choose who to infect. It could hit you as hard as it hit me. And I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through,” Paulina told CNN.
He told the dam he had planned to get vaccinated before he got sick.
“My message, technically, is that if you are eligible for the vaccine, please. I plan to get vaccinated as soon as my doctor lets us know when I can,” he added.
Velasquez’s story is unfortunately not unique. The United States has continued to see an increase in COVID-19 cases due to the highly contagious delta variant, especially in states with low vaccination rates.
The state of Florida has one of the highest daily averages of new coronavirus cases behind Texas, according to data compiled by The New York Times.
Doctors have also seen an increase in pediatric cases of COVID-19, amid school reopening and face-to-face classes. The increase in cases in children is of particular concern because a vaccine for children under 12 has not yet been authorized.
Pfizer and Moderna have said they have begun trials to test the COVID-19 vaccine in children under 12, although it is not yet clear when the shot will be available for this age group.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States saw about 158,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and more than 164,000 the day before.
Approximately 73% of Americans 12 years of age or older have received at least one vaccine, while 62% are fully vaccinated.