Inside Oklahoma's surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among children
ABC News
Oklahoma doctors say they are seeing a massive surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among children – more than during any previous wave of the pandemic.
Oklahoma doctors say they are seeing a massive surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among children -- more than during any previous wave of the pandemic.
Between Jan. 9 and Jan. 15, more than 16,000 children under the age of 18 tested positive for COVID-19, making up 18.7% of all cases in the state that week, according to a weekly epidemiology and surveillance report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
That's a 138% increase from the 6,700 children who contracted the virus the week before and a 566% spike from the 2,400 children who tested positive for the virus the week before Thanksgiving.
"If l look back just to two months ago -- kind of October, November -- that number tended to be between five and 10," Dr. Cameron Mantor, acting chief medical officer at OU Health, told ABC News. "In the past three weeks now, we've just seen it continue to skyrocket."
