How to protect children from variants of the new coronavirus?

Infectologist: There will be no herd immunity due to variants 2:21

(CNN) -

The delta variant of the new coronavirus remains a major threat to the United States' fight against the covid-19 pandemic, and more vaccines are one way to combat it, according to one expert.

This highly contagious and aggressive variant was first detected in India and is already found in most US states, according to authorities.

In Washoe County, Nevada, for example, 17 cases of the delta variant have been detected, the county's Regional Information Center reported in a press release.

Two of the cases of the delta variant affect Hunsberger primary school students.

• One by one, all the variants of the new coronavirus identified so far

"We cannot continue to have core counties and unvaccinated areas in this country," Dr. Jayne Morgan, executive director of the Piedmont Healthcare Coronavirus Task Force in Atlanta, told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield on Saturday.

Those unvaccinated populations create a place where coronavirus variants can continue to develop, "and then those mutations have the ability to keep learning, to get smarter, and ultimately evade the immunization status of the rest of us." Morgan explained.

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The fact that children under the age of 12 are not allowed to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is why more people eligible for the vaccine must do so, Morgan noted.

"Our children represent that part of our society that currently cannot be vaccinated, so it depends on the rest of us to step up and get vaccinated so that we can protect all those who currently cannot be vaccinated," added.

It's not just the coronavirus that affects children

Diabetes cases in children double during 1:00 pandemic

Type 2 diabetes cases among children more than doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic at a Louisiana hospital, according to new research.

Dr. Daniel Hsia, associate professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, and colleagues looked at the hospitalization rate for new onset type 2 diabetes among children at Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital in Baton Rouge .

They found that, from March to December 2019, the rate was 0.27%: 8 cases out of 2,964 hospitalizations.

During the same period in 2020, the rate jumped to 0.62%: 17 cases out of 2,729 hospitalizations.

"They are very small numbers," Hsia told CNN.

"We are a single hospital, but we believe that we can be a microcosm of what is happening throughout the country."

Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common type of diabetes, and is associated with obesity, poor diet, and lack of exercise.

Among the 25 cases of type 2 diabetes in both years, 23 were in black children, Hsia's team noted.

Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, Alaska Native and Pacific Islander children may be at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Hsia noted that these existing health disparities may have worsened over the course of the pandemic.

"Risk factors for type 2 diabetes can get even worse during a time like this, when they have to stay home, have no access to healthy food and physical activity, and there are sleep disturbances," added Hsia .

Travel figures increase

More than 152 million people in the United States are fully vaccinated against the new coronavirus, according to data from the CDC on Saturday, representing about 45.8% of the total population.

Nearly 66% of U.S. adults have been vaccinated at least once, the CDC notes.

US President Joe Biden's goal of 70% of adults having at least one dose by July 4 is very likely to fall short, and authorities are now targeting mid-July for that achievement.

As the country makes slow progress in vaccination, more people are taking advantage of the summer months to travel.

More than 2.1 million people passed through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checks at airports on Friday, according to the agency's official tally, marking the eighth day in June that the number exceeds the two million.

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said Saturday morning that it was the highest volume of checks since the pandemic began.

The 2,137,584 people who passed through checkpoints on Friday are more than triple the number on the same day in 2020, according to the TSA website.

However, controls have yet to return to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, when the TSA saw more than 2.7 million passengers checked on the same day.

• There are at least 200 known cases of the delta plus variant of the coronavirus worldwide.

  This is what we know

While Some State Vaccine Lotteries Close, Others Begin

Ohio, which was the first state to start a lottery for vaccinated people with prizes of up to $ 1 million, ended its program this week, according to the state health department.

"The Vax-a-Million promotion was a resounding success for Ohio, with a significant increase in vaccinations in the first two weeks of the promotion," said State Governor Mike DeWine.

“The even better news is that we have more Ohioans protected from covid thanks to the power of the vaccine.

I continue to urge Ohioans to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones from this deadly virus. "

While states like California are also ending their million dollar incentive drives, others are starting.

Massachusetts will announce its first million dollar winner on Tuesday, and there will be four more drawings in the coming weeks.

The Illinois "All In For The Win" sweepstakes offers residents the chance to win up to $ 1 million, with additional scholarships for vaccinated youth.

The first drawing is July 8.

CNN's Adrienne Winston, Rebekah Riess, Lauren Mascarenhas, Holly Yan and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.

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