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The Number of Children With COVID in Some Major Ohio Pediatric Hospitals is Increasing

 Child in hospital wearing mask
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Cincinnati Children's Hospital says it has seen more cases of COVID-19 in children than hospitals in Cleveland and Columbus, in general.

At least 20 kids are hospitalized at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus and one-quarter of them are in the facility’s intensive care unit.

Dr. Rustin Morse, chief medical officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, says the number of kids being hospitalized continues to grow.

"It is concerning to see that the pediatric volume of COVID patients in just one week in our hospital has doubled," Morse said.

Morse says five of the 20 kids hospitalized there are in intensive care. Two are on ventilators. And he says one of those kids does not have any underlying health conditions.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital doesn’t release a daily count of children with COVID, but its chief of staff, Dr. Patty Manning Courtney, said recently that the facility has been generally seeing higher numbers of cases than hospitals in Columbus and Cleveland.

Pediatric doctors repeatedly say the best way to fight COVID in kids is to get them vaccinated if they are eligible and wearing masks inside buildings and crowded spaces.
Copyright 2021 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.