Covid Outlook Getting Worse For Kids

CIDRAP: US Data Show Child COVID-19 Cases Rising Exponentially
For the first time during the pandemic, children now account for more than one quarter of new weekly US COVID-19 cases, according to the latest report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).Nearly 252,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported for the week ending Sep 2, the largest number recorded for children during the pandemic, according to the report. Children accounted for 26.8% of reported weekly US cases. (Soucheray, 9/8)

CNN: Delta Variant In Kids: Child Covid-19 Hospitalizations Hit A Record High As Schools Reopen 
Just as doctors feared, more children are getting hit hard by Covid-19 as the Delta variant tramples across the country. And the school year just started. "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." (Yan, 9/8)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: 7th Mississippi Child Dies Of COVID, Eight Pregnant Women Lose Lives To Virus In A Month
Mississippi health officials have reported a seventh child, under age 1, is dead due to complications from COVID-19 and eight pregnant women in the state have lost their lives to the coronavirus since Aug. 1. All eight expecting mothers were unvaccinated, Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said, adding that COVID-19 is particularly dangerous and problematic for pregnant women and can be potentially deadly for the fetus. Some of the women's babies were born premature and are alive, Dobbs said, but did not specify a number. Officials are still investigating the cases. (Haselhorst, 9/8)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

USA Today: Severe Breakthrough Infections Mostly On Elderly, Sick
Severe coronavirus breakthrough infections are not only rare, they mostly happen on older people with other underlying health conditions, a new Yale University study reveals. Yale researchers looking into nearly 1,000 cases of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between March 23 and July 1 of this year found 54 were fully vaccinated, and 14 had severe or critical illness (almost half had no symptoms and went to the hospital for an unrelated condition). The median age among the group of 14 was 80.5, and 12 of them had heart disease. Other comorbidities among them included excess weight, diabetes and lung disease. Three of the patients died. (Bacon and Ortiz, 9/8)

AP: Idaho Patients In Hospital Halls Amid COVID Rationed Care
Amid the Idaho coronavirus surge that prompted officials to authorize hospitals to ration health care, Army soldiers sent to one hospital have traded their fatigues for personal protective equipment to help treat a flood of infected patients. The conference center at Kootenai Health hospital in the city Coeur d’Alene has been converted into a field hospital of sorts — with some of its classrooms filled with hospital beds where patients receive oxygen or get monoclonal antibody treatment, hospital officials said. (Boone, 9/9)

AP: Military Medical Team To Help Arkansas With COVID-19 Battle
The U.S. Defense Department is sending a 20-member military medical team to Arkansas to help expand the state’s hospital capacity in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Wednesday. Hutchinson said the team of 14 nurses, four physicians and two respiratory therapists would be sent to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock. (9/8)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: UMMC Garage Field Hospital Being Dismantled As MS Continues To Struggle With ICU Capacity
A field hospital in a University of Mississippi Medical Center garage, which treated COVID-19 patients and had intensive care unit capacity, is in the process of being dismantled as state health officials say Mississippi only has 10 available ICU beds. On Aug. 15, Samaritan's Purse, a non-denominational evangelical Christian organization, deployed the additional field hospital in collaboration with UMMC, the governor's office, the Mississippi State Department of Health and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. According to the organization's initial press release, the makeshift unit could care for up to 32 COVID-19 patients. (Haselhorst, 9/8)

NBC News: Oscar De La Hoya Released From Hospital, Says Covid 'Hit Me Really Hard'
Hall of Fame boxer Oscar De La Hoya said Wednesday that he is home after having been hospitalized with Covid-19. "I was in there for 3 days. Covid hit me really hard," De La Hoya, 48, said on Twitter. "I was in the best shape of my life, and I really can't wait to get back in the ring." (Fitzsimons, 9/8)

In updates on the delta and alpha variants —

North Carolina Health News: COVID Delta Variant Q&A With Virologist Lisa Gralinski 
Lisa Gralinski is a virologist who studies human coronaviruses. She’s an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s been studying human coronaviruses for close to 13 years and as such, has been a much sought after expert during the SARS CoV2 pandemic. Gralinski sat down to talk to NC Health News about what’s happening with Delta, what we can expect next during the pandemic and how to protect unvaccinated kids. (This conversation has been edited for length and clarity). (Hoban, 9/9)

Stat: How Delta's Remarkable Replication Threw New Twists Into The Pandemic
One of the key reasons the Delta variant has ignited new surges of Covid-19 infections across the United States is its remarkable ability to make copies of itself. That skill has helped make Delta far more transmissible than any other iteration of the coronavirus seen thus far. But its replication prowess could also be at the heart of the other twists Delta has thrown into the pandemic, including the increase in breakthrough infections with the variant and why it potentially causes severe Covid-19 more often. (Joseph, 9/9)

CIDRAP: Study Says Alpha Variant Doubled COVID Cases In Israeli Kids 
The SARS-CoV-2 Alpha (B117) variant spread faster and more efficiently than previous strains among children 9 years and younger in Israel in late 2020 and early 2021, even amid the concurrent immunization of adults against COVID-19, according to an observational study yesterday in JAMA Network Open. A team led by a researcher at Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel in Petah Tikva compared the publicly available daily data of 21,615 children who tested positive for COVID-19 from Aug 1 to Oct 2, 2020, with those of 50,811 children who tested positive from Dec 3, 2020, to Feb 3, 2021. The researchers adjusted weekly incidence rates according to the number of COVID-19 tests performed. (Van Beusekom, 9/8)