U.S. kids hospitalized with COVID-19 hits record

The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States hit a record high on Saturday, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The variant, which is rapidly spreading among the unvaccinated portion of the U.S. population, has caused hospitalizations to spike in recent weeks, driving up the number of pediatric hospitalizations to over 1,900 on Saturday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Children currently make up about 2.4% of the nation's COVID-19 hospitalizations. Kids under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine, leaving them more vulnerable to infection from the new, highly transmissible variant than they were earlier in the pandemic.

The U.S. now has an average of about 129,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, a rate that has doubled in a little over two weeks, according to a Reuters tally. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients is at a six-month high,

The spike in overall cases has ramped up tension between conservative state leaders and local districts over whether children should be required to wear masks in school as they head back to the classroom this month.

School districts in Florida, Texas and Arizona have mandated that masks be worn in schools, defying orders from their Republican state governors that ban districts from imposing such rules. The administration of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has threatened to withhold funding from districts that impose mask requirements, and the Dallas Morning News reported on Friday that Texas Governor Greg Abbott is appealing to the state Supreme Court to overturn Dallas County's mask mandate,.