BALTIMORE (WJZ) — COVID-19 infections in people under the age of 19 are increasing, according to data from the Maryland State Department of Health.
In the past 24 hours, 16 more people have had to be hospitalized for the virus. This increased the number of inpatients nationwide to 468. Of these, 13 are pediatric patients.
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Since Friday, the pediatric acute beds have been in the double digits, on Tuesday 11 beds were occupied, two more children in the intensive care unit.
Another 2,482 positive tests were added to Tuesday’s tally. People under the age of 19 with COVID-19 infections account for about a quarter of the total caseload.
For the past 2.5 weeks, data from the state showed that there were more than 400 new COVID-19 cases every day in the same age group.
A COVID-19 update was on the agenda at a board meeting of the Maryland Department of Education.
The board decided against it go through the data However, during the meeting, the CEO and the state school principal made brief remarks.
Data from the Maryland Department of Health and Human Services shows that certain public schools in Howard County, Baltimore County and Baltimore City saw a record number of COVID-19 cases between April 26 and May 24 compared to earlier this year.
For example, Baltimore City public schools recorded 932 cases during that period, compared with 632 between the previous peak this year of 623 from Jan. 25 to Feb. 22.
Schools’ COVID-19 cases are being carefully monitored, state school principal Mohammed Choudhury said.
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“What you’re seeing — and you’re going to see that in the data — is that this variant has fewer negative effects than our other variants, but it’s more contagious,” Choudhury said.
Maryland State Board of Education President Clarence Crawford noted that safe in-person learning is still the state’s stance.
“We’re not going back to virtual,” Crawford said. “We have more tools at our disposal: we have vaccines, we have medical treatments, we have the protocols from last year, but only once again as a state to reaffirm our position, personal safe learning.”
Nearly 700,000 people age 19 and younger in Maryland who are eligible for immunizations have been fully vaccinated.
Children under the age of five are the only group in the United States not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. Now both Pfizer and Moderna want regulators green light for their vaccines for young people between the ages of six months and five years.
On Monday, Pfizer said its data shows three small doses of the vaccine can provide strong protection for children under the age of five.
There are still a few steps to be taken before these pediatric images are available.
Health officials and expert panels must decide whether the recordings are safe and protective in order to authorize use. The FDA plans to meet on June 15th to discuss immunizations for our youngest population.
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If either the Pfizer vaccine or the Moderna vaccine is cleared, the CDC will have to decide whether to recommend that all babies, toddlers, and preschoolers be eligible for the vaccine or only those who are at higher risk of getting it to infect.
