Record number of children with COVID-19 hospitalized in the US
What's the story
Children are being admitted to hospitals in huge numbers due to the significant increase in COVID-19 cases in the US.
More severe COVID-19 symptoms that doctors are seeing in hospitalized children this month include a high fever, trouble breathing, and dehydration.
The US has also set a new record on Thursday by reporting a total of 580,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day.
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Why does it matter?
The spike in hospitalizations raised worries about how unvaccinated Americans under the age of 18 may fare in the latest outbreak.
Since the pandemic began, new infections in the US have reached an all-time high.
As the growing tide of COVID-19 threatened to disrupt Americans' daily life, US health professionals cautioned them to prepare for serious disruptions in the coming weeks.
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How many children were hospitalized?
During the week of December 22-28, 378 children aged 17 and younger were hospitalized with COVID-19 on an average, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.
It is a straight 66% increase from the previous week's average.
According to the CDC, the previous high for the pandemic occurred in early September, when hospitalizations of children averaged 342 per day.
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'It is heart-wrenching'
"It's just so heartbreaking," said Dr. Paul Offit, infectious-disease expert, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "It was hard enough last year, but now you know that you have a way to prevent all this."
Offit said none of the vaccine-eligible children who were receiving care at his facility for roughly a week had been immunized.
He said two-thirds of the children had underlying medical conditions.
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What is the scenario of COVID-19 in the US?
In the US, new cases in all age groups have reached record highs, with an average of 300,000 per day—which is more than twice the number just two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the CDC said Omicron was responsible for 59% of new infections last week.
According to Worldometers, the infection has affected over 55,226,252 people in the US, and more than 845,712 people have died.