INDIANA, USA — The virus appears to be spreading more rapidly in children now than it was earlier this year. The rise in cases among children could be due to childcare reopening, youth sports gearing up or children spending more time with friends.
The FOCUS team is providing more context about how the virus is impacting kids in Indiana and how serious the cases are.
The graph below shows a breakdown of cases and deaths.
Cases are in blue and deaths in orange. They are broken down by age group on the bottom.
People under 19 years-old make up about 9% of the total number of cases in the state. Consistent with testing, about 9% of all those tested were in this age group as well.
The same group accounts for less than 1% of the deaths due to COVID-19 in Indiana.
Now, let's look at how serious the sickness has been in children.
What you're looking at is how many boys( blue) and girls (orange) have been hospitalized from COVID-19 to date.
If hospitalized, the average hospital stay for children under four is about eight days. The average stay for kids between five and 19 years-old is about 10 days.
People under 19 account for 2% of the total hospitalizations. The virus is definitely not taking ahold of kids the same way it is adults.
Think about it this way. Most adults who are hospitalized are spending about 27 days in the hospital, with 21 of those in the ICU. So, the virus is affecting children but nowhere near as seriously as adults.
Here's a look at the hospitalization rate for all age groups.
In Indiana, hospitalizations continue to stay well below all-time highs hit back in April.
Recent data shows 279 COVID-19 patients are in the ICU in Indiana and 69 patients are on ventilators.
Although we've seen recent case increases Indiana, hospital resources are in good shape and staying well below the health care capacity. About 43% of the ICU beds in the state remain open and 85% of the ventilators are available.
About 13% of Hoosiers diagnosed with COVID-19 end up in the hospital, 3% need ICU treatment, and 71% recover, according to the Regenstrief Institute.
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