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Indiana children stay in ICU longer; remains a small portion of those hospitalized, data shows

Positive COVID-19 cases in classrooms are something we are starting to hear about almost daily as Indiana students head back into school.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The bottom line and big thing to keep in mind, children are testing positive more often but we continue to see very few of them getting seriously ill.

Since more cases in Indiana schools were reported today, the FOCUS team is breaking down hospitalizations by age in Indiana.

This graph is showing you a breakdown of hospitalizations by age.

Credit: FOCUS Investigates

The youngest age group is on the far left and the oldest on the far right. 

So far there have been 39 hospitalizations in children under the age of 4.

In the 5 to 19 age group, there have been 77 hospitalizations. 

That may seem scary, but compare it to the 1900 hundred hospitalizations in the 60 to 69 age group and is a small percent of the total hospitalizations.

We also know when children are hospitalized with COVID-19 they are typically spending a much shorter time in the hospital than adults but a long time in the ICU, according to the Regenstrief Institute.

Credit: FOCUS Investigates

You can see the ages along the bottom and the bars rise to show the average each age group spends in the ICU in orange compared to the average overall all hospital stays in blue.

Notice for two youngest age groups, the time they need treatment in intensive care is longer than most of the other age groups, meaning sometimes the coronavirus does make children seriously ill.

However, the fact that the average overall hospital stay for younger age groups, the blue bars, are considerably lower than other age groups tells us that the majority of children bounce back fairly well.

It is important to remember, the overall trends in the data still show that the risk of death increases with age.  

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