MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As the battle over mask mandates in schools wages on, child COVID cases continue to surge.
Dr. Nick Hysmith is Le Bonheur Children's Hospital's Medical Director of Infection Prevention.
"We've seen a pretty dramatic increase over the last 5 or so days," said Hysmith.
He says children being treated for the virus went from 8 last week to 19 this week at Le Bonheur.
"Which is the highest we've seen and a concerning trend over the last several days," said Hysmith.
As of Tuesday morning:
- 6 of those children were in critical care.
- Ten were being treated in the respiratory unit.
- One child was in the emergency department waiting for a bed
- 2 children had tested positive just today (Tuesday, August 10th)
COVID isn't the only illness on the rise in children the hospital is seeing.
RSV, a respiratory virus that causes mild cold-like symptoms is spiking and could rival COVID for hospital beds and resources if COVID is not handled seriously in schools.
"I think that if some of these mask mandates fall away we are going to be in the situation like some of our surrounding areas like Arkansas for example with lots of kids out on quarantine," said Hysmith.
He says ultimately a situation like that would lead to more sick kids coming to Le Bonheur.
Experts say children only account for a small portion of cases across the U.S., but Le Bonheur makes up about half of the cases of children between the ages of 10 and 13 hospitalized in Tennessee.
"I think that there's still bit of a question mark of when we're going to see the peak in children but I think a lot of that is going to have to do with how much is transmitted in schools," said Hysmith.