COVID-19 cases among kids are surging. Here's what Sacramento-area pediatricians say parents can do
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States is the highest its ever been, and many patients are young children. "I don't think anyone has seen a disease like COVID-19 impact kids the way it has," said Dr. Beatrice Tettah, who has treated children for the last 10 years in Sacramento. At Tettah's private practice, phone calls about the omicron variant and possible exposure are now constant. Most of her patients testing positive are under the age of 5, a group medical experts say is highly vulnerable. "It has been heartbreaking at times," Tettah said. "They didn’t ask to get exposed to it or catch it." COVID-19 infections among U.S. children are "increasing exponentially," with more than 580,000 cases reported just for the week of Jan. 6, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The majority of children ending up in the hospital are unvaccinated.
