Covid-19: Delta variant spikes hospitalisation in US; thousands of children suffer

With above 1 lakh cases every day, United States hospitals are running out of ward space to provide adequate care to infected patients. Alarmingly, pediatric hospitals have also reached their highest levels of in-patients since the country, a year ago, started tracking COVID cases amidst children. An average of 303 children admissions per day was recorded for over a week until August 22, informed a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bulletin.

ICU and emergency wards in hospitals are jam-packed with severely ill patients

Meanwhile, Kentucky and Texas on August 27 joined the growing list of states that are witnessing a record number of COVID-related hospitalisation, AP reported. The states have reported the maximum number of cases since the inception of the pandemic in the nation.

ICU units at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Georgia have somehow managed to fit 50 patients in a room of 38, all breathing with the help of ventilation, informed Dr. Jyotir Mehta, Medical Director in the hospital. Meanwhile in New Mexico, the number of COVID-19 patients needing medical attention abruptly jumped up by 20%.

On Friday, six other states - Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii Mississippi and Oregon broke the previous COVID-related hospitalisation records. As per a statement by experts, the surge has been fuelled by the highly transmissible COVID-19 delta variant, leading to vulnerable cases mostly among unvaccinated people.

Alarmingly upward graph for kids as well

On August 27, approximately 36% of the in-patients in Tennessee included children below 12 years of age, CDC data reported. According to Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey, the state had 14,000 pediatric cases in the last seven days, a 57% increase over the previous week. Similarly, South Carolina reported a 13% increase, since 2020, in the admission of patients below the age of 20. On August 25, Wolfson's Children Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida admitted 15 children with COVID.

The current developments have led the US State officials to strengthen masking mandates in school premises. On August 18, US President Joe Biden ordered the State Education Department to take legal actions against Governors opposing mask mandates in schools.

"Some state governments have adopted policies and laws that interfere with the ability of schools and districts to keep our children safe during in-person learning," Biden said in a statement.

Some schools have also refrained from opting for safety measures by barring face masks for authorities too, AP quoted Biden as saying. Biden directed State Education Department secretary Miguel Cardona to "access all available tools" to be used against all states aiming to flout mandatory rules and risk students amidst surging Coronavirus cases.

Following the announcement, the State Education Department took to Twitter to draft a "Return to School Roadmap" that enlisted all the rules deemed mandatory for the state public schools. "As communities prepare for safe in-person learning and welcome students back to physical classrooms for the 2021-2022 academic year, there are key steps that all school leaders can take to help school communities remain safe and healthy," it mentioned.

US Covid map

As per CDC data, the US is recording an average of 1,100 Covid-related deaths per day. The new infections rates are averaging around 1,52,000 cases. As of August 27, the nation reported 1,92,720 cases, taking the overall tally to 3.87 crores. It is noteworthy that among the 6 lakh COVID-related deaths in the country, fewer than 500 were kids under 18.

With inputs from AP

Image: AP/PIXABAY/representative