PCCI: About One-Third of COVID-19 Cases In Dallas County Are in Children
Pediatric COVID-19 cases account for about a third of cases in Dallas County, a pandemic high for that age group, according to data from the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation.
More than 3,465, or 33%, of the county’s 10,538 cases are in children ages 0 to 17, according to PCCI. Cases in school age groups rose quickly in the last two weeks, jumping 75% for adolescents ages 14 to 17 from the week ending Aug. 26 to the week ending Sept. 1 and 61% for children ages 5 to 13 in that same time period, PCCI data showed.
While pediatric COVID-19 cases are climbing, cases in other age groups have been trending downward for the last month.
“We used to see the rise exclusively in the elderly at the beginning, and then as we got into delta and omicron we saw rises in every single group. But this is really the only time that we’ve seen the rise solely in 17-year-old folks and younger,” Parkland Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Chang told the Dallas Morning News.
Experts attribute the rise in cases among school-aged children to the recent return to school and comparatively lower vaccination rates in younger age groups.
Texas Department of State Health Services data shows only about 2% of Dallas County children under 5 have been inoculated since vaccine eligibility opened up to the youngest residents.
Read more from the Dallas Morning News here.
