PHOENIX — Banner Health officials are seeing five times the number of kids with COVID-19 in their hospitals since October.
“We are one of the highest in the country for Covid hospitalizations in the country and we are seeing the same thing in children,” said Chief Medical Officer Banner Desert Medical Center Mesa, Dr. David Moromisato.
Arizona continues to lead the nation in the rate of infection and Banner Health is seeing more kids in hospital beds soar.
In October, around 75 to 80 kids were in hospital beds across the state. Now that number is 400 -- nearly three weeks into the new year.
“Kids can be as sick as requiring a ventilator," said Moromisato.
Moromisato says although the virus typically doesn’t affect kids like it does adults, he’s seeing more patients with Multisystem Inflammation Syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but serious condition that causes inflammation of a child’s organs after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Of the now 685,000 cases of COVID-19 in Arizona, 107,000 are people ages 20 and under.
“We’ve definitely seen more patients over the last month or so but it’s still within the capacity of the hospital,” said Associate Director of Infection, Prevention and Control at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Dr. Wassem Ballan.
Ballan at Phoenix Children’s Hospital says the rise in pediatric cases is expected but says, despite that sharp turn, kids overwhelmingly defeat the virus.
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