Doctor: Most childhood COVID caught outside school

Guy Lucas, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read

Sep. 18—TRIAD — Although pediatric cases of COVID-19 have surged to the highest levels seen during the pandemic, those infections largely do not stem from children's interactions during school hours, a Triad infectious disease expert says.

The larger problems have been such things as carpooling and sports-related after-school socializing, Dr. Christopher Ohl of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center said Thursday during a media briefing. That's particularly true of children 12 and older, who account for the majority of pediatric cases requiring hospitalization, he said.

"That's the more socially active group," he said.

During this summer's surge in COVID-19, children account for a much larger proportion of new cases — perhaps one-third — compared to previous surges, Ohl said.

"This is a much more kid-centric pandemic now," he said.

But for the most part, children remain much less likely than adults to get severely ill, he said. Children with other health problems are the most vulnerable, and obesity is the top health problem seen among children who have become seriously ill.

Ohl said he hopes the FDA will approve vaccines for children under 12 by late October.

Cone Health announced Friday that because of an increased demand for pediatric testing it was opening a separate pediatric COVID-19 testing site at Greensboro Women's Health Care, 719 Green Valley Road, Suite 101, starting on Monday. Testing will be available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. but requires an appointment to be made online at conehealth.com/testing.

On a different topic, Ohl said large outdoor events such as the Carolina Classic Fair in Winston-Salem, scheduled to run Oct. 1-10, can be carried out safely as long as organizers take precautions, such as requiring masks for indoor exhibit areas and encouraging them outdoors when in large crowds.

Ohl said people need such events for their mental health.

"We need to have things to have fun," he said.

People also need to get used to navigating society while maintaining precautions against COVID-19 because it may become part of the everyday public health background just like colds and flu.

"It's never going to 100% go away," he said.