LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear (D) began including the number of people 18 and under who tested positive for coronavirus in his daily briefings. Wednesday was no exception.
What You Need To Know
- Children make up roughly one-sixth of new COVID-19 cases over past 10 days
- Louisville pediatrician urges people to look deeper at the numbers
- Pediatrician says fewer children are coming to the hospital for check ups, physicals
Beshear announced 816 new cases of COVID-19, 116 of which were within people 18 and under. Children age 18 and under account for 16%, or roughly one-sixth, of all new COVID-19 cases in Kentucky over the past ten days.
But, Dr. Erin Frazier, a Louisville pediatrician with Norton Children’s Medical Associates on Broadway, urges people to look a little deeper at the numbers.
“What does that actually mean? Out of how many children who are tested? How many children are truly asymptomatic,” asked Dr. Frazier. “We have to keep those in mind when we are just looking at numbers and what it means in the context of those numbers.”
Last week was Kentucky’s highest COVID-19 new case total with over 5,400 new cases, 16% of those being children. Norton Children’s Medical Associates said that they usually see about 10 positive cases a week in the Louisville offices. Dr. Frazier said COVID-19 is serious, but that's why it's important for families to take precautions to lower the risk of contracting coronavirus.
“I’m seeing children with a history of exposure being positive,” she said. “We don’t have many children who don’t have a history of an exposure being positive in the community where I’m servicing children.”
Dr. Frazier said that she is seeing fewer children visiting her office than she normally would in a typical year.
“From my viewpoint as a general pediatrician, we are actually not seeing as many sick kids we normally see this time of year. We are not seeing as many back to school checkups or sports physicals as we would this time of year.”
She wants families to continue to make smart decisions. That is the takeaway she wants people to come away with watching the daily briefings.
“Wear a mask, stay away from large crowds, use a lot of hand sanitizer, and wash your hands regularly,” she added.
Dr. Frazier wants to remind parents how important it is for infants and young children to come to their checkups for their vaccinations. One of the vaccines pediatricians hope parents consider this fall is a flu vaccine, which will be important with this season strain of flu making its rounds along with COVID-19.