More Children Included In Record Breaking Single-Day Number Of U.S. Coronavirus Cases
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - For a second day in a row, the United States has broken a record for single day coronavirus cases. Thursday the nation logged more than 116,000 new cases. Doctors are also noticing a rising number of cases among children.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics in the week ending October 29, there were 61,000 new cases in children. That's the largest number in a single week since the pandemic began.
"Absolutely we don't want to see what was seen earlier in New York city and around the world where the healthcare system is totally overwhelmed," said Dr. Philip Huang, the Dallas County Health and Human Services Director.
While death rates are lower than we saw in the summer, Dr. Huang said hospitalizations are climbing.
"One of the hospital systems said if the trends continued like we're seeing now, in a couple of weeks, they would be at the levels they saw in the highest numbers during the summer," said Dr. Huang.
Pediatric cases are also climbing. Dr. Carla Garcia Carreno with Children's Health told CBSDFW that while those cases tend to be less severe, they certainly can lend to the spread of the virus. She said all of us need to reconsider our holiday gatherings this year.
"Gatherings, especially if they're large, that people are not able to maintain social distancing, and if they're not using masks, if they're indoors in a poorly ventilated area, that's like a recipe for disaster," she said. "You're going to have possibly a super spreader event."
Both doctors reinforced the importance of masking up and social distancing. They both also said everyone who can, should get a flu shot.
MORE FROM CBSDFW
