* This is not last year’s COVID-19. WGLT in Bloomington-Normal…

Children make up the largest share of new coronavirus cases in McLean County, according to data from the McLean County Health Department (MCHD). […]

People age 18 and under make up close to one-third (32%) of coronavirus cases in the last week in the county. Children under age 12 are still not eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. […]

The county reported 218 coronavirus cases from July 28 to Aug. 4, including 18 new cases on Wednesday. The weekly total includes 58 people ages 1 to 17, three infants under age 1 and seven patients who are 18 years old.

* CNN…

Almost 72,000 children and teens caught Covid-19 last week — a “substantial” increase from a week earlier, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported Tuesday.

The group counted 71,726 new cases from July 22 - 29. That is a “substantial” increase from the nearly 39,000 cases reported a week before, and five times as many kids who were sick at the end of June. The definition of a child varies by state but generally includes those up to age 17 or 18.

Cases don’t automatically translate into hospitalizations with kids. But that’s also becoming a problem.

* Center Square…

In announcing mask mandates for schools and daycares this week, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said there’s an increase of COVID-hospitalizations in cases among young people.

“The percent of hospitalizations among those younger than 20 years old tripled from 2.5% to 7.8%,” Ezike said.

* KTRK Houston…

In a sign that the delta variant is affecting more children on a daily basis, an 11-month-old girl from the Houston area had to be airlifted to Temple because no pediatric hospitals in Houston would accept her as a transfer patient.

“She needed to be intubated immediately because she was having seizures,” said Patricia Darnauer, the administrator for LBJ Hospital. “We looked at all five major pediatric hospital groups and none [had beds] available.” […]

“The emergency rooms at the major children’s hospitals here in Houston, the largest medical center in the world, are extremely crowded,” said [pediatrician Dr. Christina Propst]. “They are filling, if not full, as are the hospitals and intensive care units.”

* Palm Beach Post…

Pediatricians across Palm Beach County are taking on social media, television and email to warn of a surge in COVID-19 cases among children both locally and across the state. They are concerned not only about the growing number of cases among the young but also about the severity of illness they are witnessing.

“Locally, we are seeing an alarming rise in children being hospitalized for COVID-19,” pediatrician Dr. Tommy Schechtman wrote in a letter Sunday to his practice’s 15,000 families.

Schechtman said in an interview this week that he was driven to pen the letter by a variety of concerns, including having learned that on one day in the past week, 24 children were admitted to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

* Lee County Florida’s Fox 4…

Lee Health says the number of children admitted to their hospitals for COVID-19 has tripled during this wave of the pandemic. They’ve seen as many as nine children hospitalized with the virus recently - that includes two children who are currently in ICU at Golisano Children’s Hospital. […]

Armando Llechu, Lee Health’s Chief Officer of Hospital Operations says this time with more children getting admitted to Lee Health hospitals.

“I believe the most we had admitted at any one time, was three, and today I believe there are eight. We’ve had as many as nine admitted in the children’s hospital,” he said.

He says those aren’t big numbers, but just to put things into perspective, he says that’s a 300 percent jump in children hospital admissions for COVID-19 compared to the first wave of the virus.

It’s not wildly out of control, but it is a real problem.

* Springfield, Missouri via the KC Star…

Diane Lipscomb, medical director for inpatient pediatrics and the pediatric intensive care unit at Mercy Springfield, said Wednesday that since June 1, and the onset of the delta variant surge, her hospital has seen an increase in pediatric patients who have been critically ill with the virus.

“In prior surges, we had very few children, if at all any admitted,” Lipscomb said. “During this surge, we are now seeing children admitted at the rates of zero to five per day.”
Infections among children

The number of children under the age of 12 testing positive for the virus increased by 113% from June to July in Greene County, according to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

* Getting hard data is a real issue, so we’re kinda flying blind…

It’s unclear whether the trend is occurring nationwide because there is no regularly updated, comprehensive data on child Covid-19 cases available. The last report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in early June, found hospitalization rates among children peaked at 2.1 per 100,000 in January 2021. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) releases a weekly report on child cases and hospitalizations, but not all states regularly submit data.

And…

While the [Illinois Department of Public Health] does track the age of those who test positive for COVID-19 over time, the department’s hospital utilization data available on its website does not include the age of the patients.

* And there’s also an unusual summertime problem with RSV…

Hospitals in Rhode Island are seeing an increased number of children being diagnosed with a virus usually only seeing during the winter months.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can cause at-risk people who become infected to wind up in the hospital.

Hasbro Children’s Hospital tells Target 12 they normally start seeing kids with RSV from November to March, but as of late, there’s been a surge of cases in Florida and more infections are showing up in Rhode Island.

Experts say about a million kids wind up in the hospital every year because of RSV, which infects the lungs and breathing passages.

For most people who get infected, it’s like the common cold, but the virus can cause serious complications for those under the age of 2 and the elderly.

* New York Times…

Health officials have expressed concern over a simultaneous rise in delta infections and cases of a respiratory virus known as respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV — a highly contagious, flulike illness that is typically more likely to affect children and older adults.

Cases of RSV have risen gradually since early June, with an even greater spike in the past month, according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RSV, which can cause symptoms that include a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and fever, normally begins to spread in the fall, making this summer spike unusual.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Dr. Heather Haq, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, described an increase in both coronavirus and RSV hospitalizations. Haq is also the chief medical officer for the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Kids previously tended to do much better at surviving a COVID-19 infection, but deaths are also popping up.

* Memphis Commercial Appeal…

Two children with COVID-19 died over the weekend, according to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

One of the children was a patient at the hospital, said Le Bonheur’s Dr. Nick Hysmith, a pediatric infectious disease specialist. Another child died during transit to the hospital, he said. The child was coming to the regional hospital from a neighboring hospital.

* So, it would be really helpful if news media outlets like the Rockford Register Star stopped glorifying crackpots…

“We are vehemently against mandating masks,” said Jim Mcllroy, founder of Elevate & Inspire, a parents group that held an “unmask our children” rally last month outside the Winnebago County Health Department.

“We are 100% in favor of parental choice. Accountability and responsibility of the children is something that is in the hands of parents, and that is not something that should be in the hands of the governor. It should not be in the hands of the mayor, it should not be in the hands of Dr. (Sandra) Martel from the Winnebago County Health Department,” he said.

So, no local or state public health rules for kids, eh? What could possibly go wrong?

A pic from their “rally”…

* Related…

* Illinois Physicians Rate COVID-19 Risk for Kids’ Daily Activities

* Dual surge: Houston doctors see increase in children hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and RSV

* Philadelphia Hospitals Seeing Sharp Increase In Number Of Children With COVID-19, Rising RSV Infections

* Niswonger Children’s Hospital: 22% of positive COVID-19 cases in Ballad region under age 18

* 76% of Small Businesses Fear Delta Variant Surges Will Hurt Their Recovery [includes Illinois numbers]