499 Oregon Kids Test Positive For COVID-19 In A Week

Nearly 500 children in Oregon have tested positive for COVID-19 during the week of Aug. 15, according to officials for the Oregon Health Authority.

At least 499 children between the ages of 0 and 5 were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus within a seven-day period as COVID-19 cases among children continue to surge across the country. However, an expert says the figures are not surprising.

“It doesn’t surprise me," Dr. Ben Hoffman, professor of pediatrics at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, told KGW8. "And I think it doesn’t surprise me because we’re seeing a lot more kids who have been back in daycare or in childcare and with the rise, the increase that we’re seeing across board— I’m not surprised.”

As of Friday evening, four children with COVID-19 had been admitted to hospitals in the state, with one in the pediatric intensive care unit. Of the four children, one is under the age of 12, while the other three are between the ages of 12 and 19.

In total, the Oregon Health Authority has reported 33,661 COVID-19 infections involving children under the age of 18 since the state began to track pediatric cases.

The rise in cases among children comes as thousands of students return to in-person learning amid the spread of the more contagious Delta variant. The increased threat has prompted Dr. Vivek Murthy, th U.S. surgeon general, to urge parents and officials to take more precautions to reduce the risk of infection in a child’s environment.

"If they are around people who are vaccinated, everyone in the household gets vaccinated, that significantly reduces the risk to our children," Murthy said, according to CNN. "Even though our kids do better, that doesn't mean that Covid is benign, it doesn't mean that it's harmless in our children. In fact, we've lost hundreds of children to Covid-19."

As of Sunday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only approved the use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech on children ages 16 and older. The mRNA vaccine also has emergency use approval for children as young as 12.

The FDA could likely approve a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 by early winter, according to former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who is currently on Pfizer’s board of directors.

“This fall, Pfizer is going to be in a position — the company I'm on the board of, as you mentioned — be in a position to file data with the FDA at some point in September and then file the application potentially as early as October,” he said.