Alabama has reported a surge of COVID-19 cases among children as the academic school year gets underway.
On Thursday, 5,571 adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17 years old tested positive last week for the coronavirus, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health, USA Today reported. During the same timeframe in 2020, 702 children had contracted COVID-19.
The state underscored this stark difference in caseloads earlier this month.
Last Friday, the state’s Department of Public Health noted that between Aug. 1 and Aug. 12, Alabama saw 6,181 children between the ages of 5 and 17 years old who had contracted COVID-19. In 2020, during this same time frame, the state saw 1,356 cases.
“In the past four weeks, 6.2 percent of cases of COVID-19 in Alabama have been among children 0-4 years of age while 8.1 percent have been in the 5 to 17 age range,” the Alabama Department of Public Health said in a statement last Friday.
The Alabama Hospital Association told CNN earlier this month that the state had reached a breaking point after it ran out of ICU beds and in fact were “in a negative 11” of spots in intensive care units.
The NBC affiliate WSFA reported on Thursday that 40 patients were in need of intensive care. The news outlet stated that, according to the Alabama Hospital Association, there were 1,602 ICU patients as of Thursday but only 1,562 staffed beds.
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Alabama reports large spike in child COVID-19 cases https://t.co/NLz8csLdAG pic.twitter.com/gMyI44IVAv
— The Hill (@thehill) August 27, 2021
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