FILE - Mom hugs kids after they got their second Moderna COVID-19 vaccines at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center on Friday, June 25, 2021 as part of the KidCOVE study evaluating the safety and efficacy of the Moderna vaccine in young childr …
ORLANDO, Fla. - On Thursday, AdventHealth officials said there are 1,580 patients hospitalized in their Central Florida hospitals.
They say the number of patients in the system has tripled in less than a month.
"And it doesn't look like it's slowing down," they said. "We've got some work to do."
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When it comes to children, they have about a dozen kids in the hospital, which is an all-time high. Last week, there were 94,000 children who tested positive for COVID-19.
Dr. Michael Keating says the sicker children tend to be older adolescents and teenagers.
"The sicker children can be the children with pre-existing conditions and one pre-existing condition, unfortunately, is obesity. We know that obesity is rampant in children and adolescents."
They say COVID pneumonia is the most common presentation of the disease in kids and as a consequence, officials say, many of the kids are on supplemental oxygen and steroids.
Dr. Keating says for anyone who worries about side effects from the shot, he says the benefits far outweigh the risks.
"So your chance of getting a serious consequence from a vaccination is about 1 in 10,000. It’s much more dangerous to put your child in a car and drive them somewhere."
Dr. Keating says he is hopeful that the COVID-19 vaccine will be available to children under 12 by the end of the year.
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