Record number of children hospitalized with COVID-19

Washington－About 1,900 children with COVID-19 were admitted to hospitals in the United States on Saturday, a record, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The variant has caused hospital admissions to rise in recent weeks, driving up the number of pediatric admissions to 1,902 on Saturday, the US Department of Health and Human Services said.

Children now make up about 2.4 percent of the country's COVID-19 hospital admissions. Those under 12 are ineligible to receive the vaccine, leaving them more vulnerable to infection from the Delta variant.

"This is not last year's COVID," Sally Goza, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told CNN. "This one is worse, and our children are the ones that are going to be affected by it the most."

The numbers of newly hospitalized COVID-19 patients aged 18-29,30-39 and 40-49 also hit record highs last week, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

National Public Radio reported on Saturday: "Now, healthcare workers on the front lines say there is another frightening prospect looming: a surge in children diagnosed with a combination of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus."

Pediatric hospitals in Texas and around the country were reporting unseasonably early outbreaks of RSV, a respiratory virus that mostly manifests as a mild illness with cold-like symptoms in adults but that can cause pneumonia and bronchiolitis in very young children, it said.

Agencies - Xinhua