‘A vertical climb’: COVID-19 positivity rate among children quadruples at Cook Children’s

The positivity rate for COVID-19 across the Cook Children’s Health Care System quadrupled in just one week, the system reported Thursday, with one-quarter of tests coming back positive for the coronavirus.

The trend at Cook Children’s mirrors increases across North Texas and nationally as more children have been infected during a surge fueled by the dominant, highly-contagious omicron variant.

Testing positivity has increased from 5.7% to 25.4% across the Fort Worth-based health care system — which operates a number of clinics and urgent care centers in the region, in addition to Cook Children’s Medical Center. That translates to roughly 400 positive cases among children per day.

The positivity rate more than doubled in just 48 hours: Tuesday afternoon, it was 11.3%.

“It is a surge with a vertical slope,” said Dr. Mary Suzanne Whitworth, medical director of infectious diseases at Cook Children’s Medical Center. “This is not a hill; it is a vertical climb in the number of cases and percent positivity for us.”

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, at least 76 children were hospitalized with the coronavirus in North Texas as of Wednesday, with only one pediatric ICU bed available.

Of those, 30 were hospitalized in Cook Children’s, and four were admitted to the hospital’s ICU.

Across the Dallas-based Children’s Health system, the most recent data showed 47 children hospitalized as of Tuesday, up from 30 last week and 12 the week before that.

Children’s Health said in a statement that it was “experiencing slightly higher volumes” but that it remains “prepared and equipped to provide care for children in North Texas.”

Alongside Texas, some of the states hit hardest by the surge in cases are New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. After days of record-breaking infections, the New York State Department of Health warned last week of a “striking increase” in hospital admissions for children with COVID-19.

The number of children admitted hospitalized with the coronavirus per week in New York City rose from 22 on Dec. 5 to 109 on Dec. 24. Statewide, it increased from 70 to 184.

Nationally, an average of 378 children were admitted to hospitals with the virus each day during the seven-day period that ended Tuesday — a 67% increase from the week before — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The previous peak of 342 hospitalizations per day among children was recorded in early September.

Across all age groups, omicron continues to shatter case records. The seven-day average of U.S. cases topped 267,000 Tuesday, according to The New York Times. The previous high, 251,232, was set on Jan. 11.

Whitworth said the “overwhelming majority” of children being hospitalized for COVID-19 haven’t been vaccinated.

“They’re struggling to breathe, coughing, coughing, coughing,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious-disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Offit said none of the children being treated for COVID-19 at his hospital about a week ago who were eligible to get a vaccine had been vaccinated — even though two-thirds had underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk for complications from the disease.

“A handful were sent to the ICU to be sedated,” he said. “We put the attachment down their throat that’s attached to a ventilator, and the parents are crying.”

Vaccines were approved for 5- to 11-year-olds two months ago. Since then, about 19.8% of Texas children in that age group have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and about 10.8% are fully vaccinated.

However, children still represent only a small percentage of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and many doctors are finding that children infected now seem less sick than those who were infected during the summer, when the delta variant was the dominant strain of coronavirus.

COVID-19 deaths also remain rare among children. Of the more than 800,000 total coronavirus deaths in the U.S., only 721 were among children as of last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Whitworth said she is concerned the numbers of cases and hospitalizations will continue to rise as holiday gatherings and travel are compounded with children returning to school from winter break. While the basics — wearing a mask, hand washing and social distancing — will help, Whitworth said parents need to prioritize vaccination.

“If they’re able to do that, there has been good data that schools can be safe,” she said.

The biggest challenge moving forward, Whitworth said, will be preventing an outbreak among medical staff, but for now they are “all OK … and working hard to take good care of these kids.”

“We want this to go away, but we are here to do what we need to do,” she added.