On Wednesday, Monroe County Board of Health member and retired pediatrician Dr. Carol Litten Touloukian hosted a town hall with local pediatricians to deliver national statistics related to COVID-19's impact on children. Herlal-Times screenshot
As youth COVID-19 cases surge across the United States, local pediatricians convened to urge residents to vaccinate their children as soon as possible.
On Wednesday, Monroe County Board of Health member and retired pediatrician Dr. Carol Litten Touloukian hosted a town hall to deliver sobering statistics related to COVID-19's impact on children in the United States and how the nearly 10,000 Monroe County residents aged 5 to 11 can be protected against the virus.
On the plus side, nearly 25% of Monroe County children ages 5-11 have been partially vaccinated in the month since they became eligible for the shots. That's well ahead of the statewide statistic: 10.6% of Indiana children ages 5-11 have received a first dose of the two-dose childhood COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Indiana Department of Health's statewide dashboard.
Currently, 40% of all COVID-19 cases nationwide are in children under the age of 18. In the United States, there were more than 20,436 hospitalizations of children as of early September and 731 child deaths due to the virus as of Nov. 24.
COVID in children ore likely to be mild, but still a risk
COVID-19 has remained in the top 10 leading causes of death in children in the United States for the past several months, according to separate reports from The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Food and Drug Administration. In Monroe County, there have been no COVID-related deaths of residents younger than 30 recorded.
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