Doctors expect surge of child COVID patients in North Carolina hospitals

A doctor on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus said the coming weeks could bring a surge in underaged hospital patients to North Carolina.

“I don’t think North Carolina will be spared from it,” Maynard Children’s Hospital Pediatrician in Chief Dr. Matthew Ledoux said. “I think we’re just seeing our surge a little bit later than some of the other states.”

Experts said the United States is entering a troubling new phase of the pandemic, and it’s hitting a population that, up to this point, hadn’t seen the worst of the coronavirus.

“What we do know from the data that’s coming out is that the Delta variant of COVID is affecting children more often and also more severely,” said Ledoux.

Health care leaders told WRAL News that in the past two weeks, states like Texas, Louisiana and Florida have seen a surge in children needing hospitalization and intensive care with COVID-19. But even in eastern North Carolina, where vaccination rates have been some of the lowest in the state, COVID-19 hospitalizations among children have stayed low.

Only four children were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the eastern and southeastern parts of the state during the week of Aug. 2 to Aug. 9, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

At Maynard Children’s Hospital in Greenville, that trend has started to change.

“Very recently we’ve seen a couple very sick children with acute COVID in the ICU,” said Ledoux.

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He said that as North Carolina’s overall hospitalization numbers climbed, he expected to see more children becoming severely sick with the Delta variant, and the effect could be amplified by children returning to schools this fall.

“We know what children can do: a few of them could get sick, some of them could get sick, and we don’t want any children to be in the intensive care unit or potentially die from this disease,” said Ledoux.

Out of concern for the mental health of children, the hospital has recommended that they go back to in-person learning this year. But health officials also insisted that children should wear masks at school to cut down the expected surge.

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“Our fear is, if we lose one child to this virus, it’s going to be devastating for our region,” Ledoux said. “So we’re doing the best we can to prevent that from happening.”

Ledoux added that the best thing parents could do to protect their children aged 12 and older was to get them vaccinated, but for younger children the best tool available was still wearing a mask, especially in a school setting. ​