US Health Director urges action to protect children from covid-19

These are the theories about the origin of covid-19 5:54

(CNN) -

The return to face-to-face classes in the US has led to thousands of students being quarantined, and COVID-19 cases among children have risen to levels not seen since the winter.

With the threat growing, the US Surgeon General is urging parents and officials to take steps that reduce the risk to a child's environment.

"If they are around people who are vaccinated, and everyone in the household gets vaccinated, that significantly reduces the risk for our children," Dr. Vivek Murthy said in a conversation hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation. .

In the classroom, there are layers of protection that the CDC has put in place to keep children safe, including wearing properly fitting face masks, properly ventilating buildings and conducting regular testing, Murthy said.

"Even though our children are doing better, that does not mean that COVID is benign, it does not mean that it is harmless to our children," Murthy said.

"In fact, we have lost hundreds of children to covid-19."

The misperception that young people don't have to worry about COVID-19 may also be hampering their motivation to get vaccinated, Murthy said.

• More and more children are contracting covid-19

As of Saturday, teens ages 16 and 17 had the highest infection rate of all age groups, according to a CNN analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). English).

Overall cases have skyrocketed in the US, with a daily average of new infections reported topping 155,000.

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Vaccination is key to protecting yourself against Covid-19 and the serious illness that could accompany it.

But for many children, vaccination is still not an option.

The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but only for those over 16 years of age, and emergency use authorizations are only They extend to 12-year-olds.

Children ages 5 to 11 are the next group in line to be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, and an updated FDA emergency use authorization would include at least 28 million additional children, but the process Authorization for a vaccine might not come until the end of the year, Murthy told CNN's Briana Keilar earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Murthy emphasized that "there are steps we can take to keep our children safer. It is even more important with the delta variant."

• Covid-19 cases among U.S. children have skyrocketed to one of the highest rates in the pandemic - experts warn it could get worse

Quarantined students

The stress over safety precautions in schools is growing as many students have already faced exposure to COVID-19 in the early days of their new school year.

At least 14,746 students and 2,984 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 in Florida's 15 largest school districts since school started, according to an analysis by CNN.

Several districts in the state are at odds with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the classroom mask orders after the governor banned such measures and some districts decided to implement them anyway.

In Georgia, six schools in Henry County are temporarily holding virtual classes through Aug. 27 due to "a steady increase in the number of people who must be quarantined."

With the rapid start of classes for New York City, officials announced a change in quarantine policy from last year based on vaccines.

The city's Department of Education Director Meisha Ross Porter and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that only unvaccinated students will be subject to quarantine if exposed to positive cases.

"It is crucial to remember this: any vaccinated person who is not symptomatic, adult or child, even if there has been contact, will stay in school," de Blasio said Thursday.

"I don't want people to think about last year's model and assume that everything is the same now. It is not the same. Why? Because of the vaccination."

• Among minors, adolescents aged 16 and 17 have the highest rates of covid-19 cases

Hospitals overwhelmed as ICU beds run out

The surge in cases has overwhelmed many healthcare workers trying to keep up with the more than 100,000 Americans hospitalized with COVID-19.

In Georgia, many hospitals have requested ambulance transfers to other facilities because they are in short supply.

The Georgia Department of Public Health on Thursday asked residents to help reduce stress on emergency medical services and emergency departments by getting vaccinated, wearing a mask and getting tested for COVID-19 somewhere other than hospitals. of the state.

And in Illinois, ICU beds are running out, particularly in southern and central parts of the state, said Dr. Ngozi Ezike of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Almost all people hospitalized with COVID-19 are not vaccinated, Governor JB Pritzker said Thursday, and those hospitalizations have "multiplied" the state's ICU use "by a factor of seven this summer."

Kentucky has also seen a sharp increase in hospitalizations.

On July 14, 239 people were hospitalized with covid-19;

By Wednesday, that number had risen to 2,074, marking 42 consecutive days of increases, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.

Some states are calling for reinforcements to support staffing in overwhelmed hospitals.

The Texas Department of Health Services will deploy 2,500 additional medical staff members to support health care facilities in the state, announced Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Medical equipment such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators, heart monitors, IV pumps, feeding pumps, and hospital beds will also be provided.

• With more than 100,000 people hospitalized for covid-19 in the US, this August is worse than the last, according to an expert

In Nebraska, a shortage of nurses and an increase in hospitalizations has prompted the governor, Pete Ricketts, to declare a hospital staff emergency.

Ricketts announced two new measures to help address personal stress: making it easier for healthcare professionals to defer continuing education or licensing requirements and limiting elective surgeries.

By limiting elective surgeries across the state, Ricketts hopes to "help free up the hospital's capacity to care for some of the other patients coming into the hospital, both non-covid and non-covid patients," he added.

CNN's Virginia Langmaid, Jacqueline Howard, Mallory Simon, Elizabeth Stuart, Maria Cartaya, Elizabeth Joseph, Devon Sayers, Rebekah Riess, Carma Hassan, Melissa Alonso, and Keith Allen contributed to this report.

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