By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Officials with UK HealthCare call the increase in COVID-19 cases in young people “definitely alarming” and urge all eligible people to get vaccinated.
Dr. Sean McTigue, medical director for Pediatric Infection Prevention and Control at Kentucky Children’s Hospital, says early on COVID-19 was affecting adults, especially older ones, but with the rise in cases, they are seeing more and more children with COVID, as well as complications.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have only had to treat ten total kids for severe COVID,” McTigue said. “However, four of those ten have been within the past two weeks, and two of those ten have been in the past two days. That’s definitely alarming, as it seems to be a distinct upward trend.”
He notes eight of their 10 cases have involved children 12-17, who are eligible for vaccination.
McTigue also says they are seeing many more children testing positive in an outpatient environment, who may be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and says that’s still a concern.
“Not only do we deal with severe COVID, but we also see a condition called MIS-C, which stands for Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, where we see overwhelming inflammation of the body after the COVID-19 infection has already been resolved. That typically occurs four to six weeks after infection.”
While they have treated 26 patients for that at Kentucky Children’s Hospital, most of whom are old enough for immunization, he says he expects an increase in MIS-C due to the delta surge.
“MIS-C is a preventable condition,” McTigue stated. “If we’re getting our eligible kids immunized to prevent this, and the more adults who are in contact with our children who are not yet old enough to be immunized, the more adults we get immunized, the fewer infections we’ll see among children and fewer complications.”
UK HealthCare also announced a more restrictive visitor policy at every facility due to the COVID surge. It includes UK Chandler Hospital, UK Kentucky Children’s Hospital, UK Good Samaritan Hospital, Markey Cancer, UK HealthCare Turfland, Kentucky Clinic and all other UK HealthCare buildings and facilities, effective Friday, August 13. It includes: One visitor at a time 18 or older allowed for non-COVID adult patients.
One or two parents or legal guardians are allowed for pediatric patients.
One support partner over the age of 16 is allowed for obstetric patients.
Two visitors in the emergency departments, as well as in the surgery waiting area.
One visitor at a time in post-anesthesia care areas.
No visitors at Adult Behavioral Health.
Both parents or guardians are allowed at Adolescent Behavior Health, with prior approval from the clinical leadership team.
At outpatient locations and clinics, one person may accompany an adult patient into an approved waiting area after completing screening. Pediatric patients may have one or two parents or legal guardians accompany them to an approved waiting area upon completion of screening. Areas with high-risk patients may have additional restrictions.