Doctors say 56% of kids at Children’s of Alabama are testing positive for COVID

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - State health leaders are urging parents to vaccinate their kids as child COVID cases increase rapidly across the state.

ADPH data shows that 2,180 people are hospitalized with the virus across the state as of January 14th, 2022. 84 of those patients are children. Dr. David Kimberlin with Children’s of Alabama said those are record numbers for kids.

He said in Children’s of Alabama’s ER, about 56 percent of kids are testing positive right now. Kimberlin said nine out of 10 kids ages five to 11 are not vaccinated. He said two out of three kids ages 12 to 17 also don’t have the shot.

While some kids wont get that sick from the virus, Kimberlin said more and more are ending up in the emergency room.

“Children’s of Alabama has increased the number of hospitalizations more than three times in the last three days,” Kimberlin said. “Three days ago, we had a third as many patients with COVID as we do today. University Hospital is approaching their maximum. We are higher at Children’s than we have been at any point in the pandemic.”

According to the latest ADPH school dashboard, there were more than 16,000 COVID cases in Alabama schools this week. There was less than three thousand cases last week.

Click here more information on child vaccination numbers across the state.

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