Georgia officials: Most outbreaks now happening in schools

More children are getting sick and spreading the virus.

At a Georgia Department of Public Health board meeting, Dr. Cherie Drenzek, a state epidemiologist, said that about 60% of all COVID-19 outbreaks in Georgia now take place in K-12 schools, with more than 100 school outbreaks so far.

A confirmed outbreak is when there are three or more

epidemiologically linked cases.

Compared to previous surges of the pandemic, cases among school-age children have increased seven-fold, she said as she updated the board on hospitalizations, deaths and

the overall trendline of the pandemic.

Severe illness from COVID-19 is still uncommon in children. However, enough kids have become infected that pediatric hospitals have been filling up. Federal health data show 381 Georgians under age 18 were hospitalized for COVID19 in the seven days that ended Sept. 11. That is more than double the number of admissions

from the same period a month earlier and nearly 15 times the number hospitalized in the week after the July 4 holiday.

Four Georgia children died in August after contracting the coronavirus, Drenzek said. That was more than in any other month during the pandemic.

Adding to the concerns about the very young: Doctors are still trying to understand the long-term impact of the virus, including Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, a rare ailment that’s dogged some kids who have had COVID-19.

Drenzek noted an encouraging slight dip in infections and hospitalizations but said it was too early to know whether the downward trend line will take hold.