Coronavirus: number of children hospitalised with Covid-19 in US hits record high
- The Delta variant has caused hospitalisations to spike in recent weeks, driving up the number of paediatric hospitalisations to 1,902 on Saturday
- Children under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine, leaving them more vulnerable to infection from the new, highly transmissible variant
The number of children hospitalised with Covid-19 in the United States hit a record high of just over 1,900 on Saturday, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The Delta variant, which is rapidly spreading among mostly the unvaccinated portion of the US population, has caused hospitalisations to spike in recent weeks, driving up the number of paediatric hospitalisations to 1,902 on Saturday, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Children currently make up about 2.4 per cent of the nation’s Covid-19 hospitalisations. Children under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine, leaving them more vulnerable to infection from the new, highly transmissible variant.
“This is not last year’s Covid. This one is worse and our children are the ones that are going to be affected by it the most,” Sally Goza, former president of the American Academy of Paediatrics, told CNN on Saturday.
The numbers of newly hospitalised Covid-19 patients aged 18-29, 30-39 and 40-49 also hit record highs this week, according to data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).