Children’s hospitals in the greater Orlando area continue to report increasing numbers of pediatric COVID-19 cases filling beds as hospitalizations surge across the state.
On Thursday, AdventHealth Central Florida said 12 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 at its 16 hospitals across six counties, the most the hospital system has seen since the start of the pandemic.
Nemours Children’s Hospital reported eight children hospitalized with COVID-19 with five in intensive care, and Orlando Health had nine children with one in the ICU.
Across the state, some 194 children were hospitalized with coronavirus.
The surge in Florida’s pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations comes at the start of a new school year. Medical experts say these numbers will continue to rise if more eligible people don’t get vaccinated.
Only about 50 percent of Floridians are fully vaccinated, and children under 12 will most likely have to wait until the end of the year for federal authorization to get the shot.
Florida and Texas account for 40 percent of all new COVID hospitalizations, in both adults and children, across the country, according to federal data.
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