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Child COVID cases surge on the Coast. 'The patients just seem to get younger and younger.'

Sun Herald - 8/11/2021

Aug. 11—Over the past month, two of the Gulf Coast's closest children's hospitals have seen alarming surges of more severe pediatric COVID-19 cases — a trend one New Orleans doctor called an "epidemic of very young children."

Children's Hospital of New Orleans and USA Health Children's & Women's Hospital in Mobile, Alabama, have hospitalized a record number of children during the virus' fourth wave, according to officials. Both hospitals said they serve patients from the Coast, as Mississippi's only children's hospital and pediatric intensive care unit are in Jackson.

A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that nationally, children now make up 19% of positive COVID cases —pediatric rates were up 84% as 72,000 kids tested positive the last week of July.

"This is not your grandfather's COVID. This delta variant is an entirely new and unexpected challenge for us. It's affecting a lot of young people," Dr. Mark Kline, the physician-in-chief at Children's Hospital of New Orleans said recently on "Good Morning America."

From July 18 through Aug. 9, the New Orleans hospital saw 35 patient referrals from the Gulf Coast region, according to a spokesperson.

Kline said the hospital is seeing much younger children, and the cases are more severe.

"We've seen the prevalence rate of COVID positivity among children at our hospital rise from 1% to 7% and now to about 20% over the course of the last 30 days, and we are hospitalizing record numbers of children.

"Half of the children in our hospital today are under two years of age, and most of the others are between five and 10 years of age, so they're too young to be vaccinated just yet," he said.

"Certainly to my eyes, and I think to what others are seeing across the region, children are experiencing more severe disease than they have in the past."

Dr. Michael Chang, chief medical officer at USA Health in Mobile, said that from March 2020 until March 21, Children's and Women's had diagnosed 500 cases of pediatric COVID. There were no child cases in May or June.

But last week, Chang said the hospital had diagnosed 100 child cases in just five days.

USA Health spokesperson Cassandra Andrews said the hospital doesn't have any area-specific numbers to offer, but they do serve patients from South Mississippi.

Coast pediatric COVID cases

Dr. Jennifer Bryan, chair of the Mississippi State Medical Association spoke with state health officials on Tuesday, who said the state's central transfer system doesn't yet have trends available for pediatric COVID cases.

She said Coast children would be sent to New Orleans, Mobile or Jackson, where there are pediatric intensive care units. Jackson'sUniversity of Mississippi Medical Center has the state's only children's hospital.

A UMMC spokesperson said Tuesday that Children's of Mississippi in Jackson has 19 pediatric patients but they did not have specific Gulf Coast data.

The central transfer system, Mississippi Med-Com, has been in use transferring COVID patients as far as Atlanta, as hospitals around the state are at a "breaking point" — Mississippi on Tuesday saw its largest single-day report of new cases of the entire pandemic, 3,488 positives and 36 deaths.

And unlike previous waves, more children are included in these counts.

"This strain of COVID is affecting twice as many kids...Yesterday we had five children in the ICU and three on ventilators," Bryan said. "There are many kids in the state right now that are unable to be vaccinated, so we need to all take the correct precautions," she said. "If for no other reason than to protect the kids, so we can keep them safe, healthy and in school."

Singing River Health System hospitals confirmed they're also seeing an uptick in pediatric COVID cases.

Those include a 14-year-old who was admitted last week and is home now. Singing River currently has a 19-year-old admitted. Their youngest patient in the ICU is 25.

The hospital also recently saw a 9-month-old with COVID.

"The patients just seem to get younger and younger," said Singing River spokesperson Sarah Duffey.

Duffey said they're also seeing double the amount COVID-positive mothers in the past two weeks than during the entire pandemic.

Several babies have been born without receiving adequate oxygen.

Memorial Hospital in Gulfport has admitted less than 15 pediatric patients since the fourth wave began, a spokesperson said. If these patients were severely sick, they were transferred to either Jackson or New Orleans for further treatment.

Merit Health's hospital in Biloxi does not have any pediatric COVID patients, spokeswoman Lori Bickel said on Tuesday.

Amid surge, kids head back to school

And as pediatric COVID cases surge, most children are back in school on the Coast.

Though incomplete, the Mississippi State Department of Health on Tuesday released its first report on COVID-19 cases and outbreaks for the 2021-22 academic year. Many Coast districts are now requiring masks despite a lack of a statewide mandate.

Schools in Pearl River County have 158 students and 46 teachers in quarantine so far. Sixty-three students and one teacher are in quarantine at schools in Jackson County, along with 75 students and 15 teachers at schools in Hancock County.

Harrison County, which has the state's fourth-largest school district, was not yet included in the health department's count.

State Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs recirculated Monday on Twitter research published by the Centers for Disease Control in December 2020, when K-12 classrooms were under a statewide mask mandate, which highlighted COVID spread in children.

Authored by Mississippi researchers across the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Mississippi State Department of Health and Children's of Mississippi, among others, the report found that many child and teenage COVID cases were associated with a lack of consistent mask use in schools and interactions outside of the home.

The study found that attending in-person school or child care two weeks before a COVID test did not indicate an increased likelihood of a positive test result — most of those studied said they followed the state's universal mask requirement throughout the study.

COVID was not associated only with school or group gatherings, however. Most close-contact exposures that led to COVID among children and adolescents were from family members, the study found.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers, one of the report's authors, said on a recent press conference that as delta has spread across Mississippi over the past few weeks, pediatric hospitalizations have been up.

Byers has warned the state for weeks of child COVID increases during the pivotal back-to-school period. He encouraged all eligible students and teachers be vaccinated.

"It is possible that we will see more children who are hospitalized, and that is one of the unfortunate things," Byers said. "That's why we need to apply those measures across the board. Get vaccinated if you are eligible in the school setting."

Vaccine events this week

Open to everyone, including children 12 and older (anyone 17 years and younger must be accompanied by an adult).

Tuesday, Aug. 10

D'Iberville Community Center (10542 Lamey Bridge Road), 10 a.m.-1 p.m., first dose only

MGCCC Athletics and Band at Perkinston Campus, 2-5 p.m., first dose only

Wednesday, Aug. 11

St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church (720 Beach Blvd E, Long Beach) from, both doses of Pfizer vaccine offered

Singing River Team Vaccine Events for employees, family and friends (open to community)

— Singing River Gulfport 6:30-9 a.m.

Singing River Ocean Springs11 a.m.-2 p.m.

— Singing River Pascagoula 3-6 p.m.

Biloxi School District, 3:30-5:30 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 12

Orange Grove Medical Specialty Clinic (15286 Community Rd. Ste. B, Gulfport), 10 a.m.3 p.m., both doses of Pfizer vaccine offered

Foster's Heating & Air (3416 Suter Road, Gautier), 7-8 a.m., first dose only

Friday, Aug. 13

Resurrection Catholic School gymnasium (520 Watts Ave, Pascagoula), 11 a.m.12:30 p.m., first dose only

Saturday, Aug. 14

Keesler Federal Credit Union (13083 Seaway Rd., Gulfport), 1-3 p.m., Johnson & Johnson vaccine offered

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