Alabama reports large spike in child COVID-19 cases

Alabama has reported a surge of COVID-19 cases among children as the academic school year gets underway.

On Thursday it was announced that 5,571 adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17 years old tested positive last week for the coronavirus, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health, USA Today reported. During the same time frame in 2020, 702 children had contracted COVID-19.  

The state underscored this stark difference in caseloads earlier this month.

Last Friday, the state’s Department of Public Health noted that between Aug. 1 and Aug. 12, Alabama saw 6,181 children between the ages of 5 and 17 years old who had contracted COVID-19. In 2020, during this same time frame, the state saw 1,356 cases.

“In the past four weeks, 6.2 percent of cases of COVID-19 in Alabama have been among children 0-4 years of age while 8.1 percent have been in the 5 to 17 age range,” the Alabama Department of Public Health said in a statement last Friday.

The Alabama Hospital Association told CNN earlier this month that the state had reached a breaking point after it ran out of ICU beds and in fact were “in a negative 11” of spots in intensive care units. 

The NBC affiliate WSFA reported on Thursday that 40 patients were in need of intensive care. The news outlet stated that, according to the Alabama Hospital Association, there were 1,602 ICU patients as of Thursday but only 1,562 staffed beds.

In Alabama, about 57 percent of people aged 12 years and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 43 percent are fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. 

Efforts to manage COVID-19 among young children have become complicated, however, given that the vaccine has only been authorized for use for children 12 years and older. 

Pfizer and Moderna have said they have begun testing their vaccine in younger children.