(CNN)Dr. Sarah Ash Combs’ first step of treatment for children brought into her emergency room with Covid-19 usually begins with a question: “What socks are you wearing today?
As her school-aged young patients look up at indistinguishable faces covered by PPE, Combs pulls up a pant leg of her scrub to show her own socks. Sometimes they’re mismatched, sometimes they’re covered in animals. And if she’s wearing her favorite, they have sushi
The surge in Covid-19 cases brought on by the highly transmissible Delta variant has meant an increase in hospitalizations among children — many of whom are not eligible for a vaccine yet. Nearly 26% of all Covid-19 cases nationwide are reported in children, according to recent data published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. And about 290 children are hospitalized with Covid-19 every day, according to Sunday’s data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.