As the Delta variant continues to wreak havoc on the United States, the number of children infected with COVID-19 in the United States on Saturday hit a record high.
According to data from the Ministry of Health and Services, 1,902 children tested positive for COVID-19 in just a few weeks. Children account for approximately 2.4% of COVID-19 hospitalizations nationwide.
Children under 12 are not eligible for the vaccine, which makes them more susceptible to the virus.
About a quarter of public school students returned to class this week as the number of cases surged. This peak sparked discussions among school districts about whether to make masks mandatory for students and teachers.
Florida, Texas, and Arizona prohibit school districts from compulsory wearing masks. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Ron DeSantis) threatened to take money away from schools that require masks. Some schools did not comply with state orders and required to wear masks.
“This is not last year’s COVID. This is worse, and our children will be the people most affected by it,” Sally Gossa, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told CNN on Saturday.
The National Education Association, the largest union of teachers in the United States, recently pledged to support mandatory vaccination. NEA President Becky Pringle tweeted, “Wear a mask and get vaccinated to protect yourself, students and the community.”
“Our students under the age of 12 cannot be vaccinated. It is our responsibility to protect their safety. Keeping them safe means that everyone who can be vaccinated should be vaccinated,” Pringle told CNN.
I and @alivitali About how NEA members work with school districts across the country to ensure that they make every effort to ensure the safety and health of students.Watching @今日秀 Watch the conversation from 8 am to 9 am EST on Sunday. #Sunday Today
— Becky Pringle (@BeckyPringle) August 14, 2021
The American Academy of Pediatrics reported that there were 12,000 COVID cases in the first week of July, and 96,000 cases in the first week of August.
Almost all Americans of all ages are hospitalized with unvaccinated people. The President of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, said on the “Fox Sunday News” that unvaccinated people are “sitting ducks” against the delta variant.
“If we don’t exceed 200,000 cases per day in the next few weeks, I would be surprised,” Collins said. “Considering that we never thought that we would never return to that field, it was heartbreaking. But we saw the Delta variant, which is very contagious, and this heartbreaking situation is that there are still 90 million people have not been vaccinated, and they have a fluke for this virus.”
