Sep 10, 2021 6 min read

Doctors are urging people to protect children and their communities as the school year gets underway and COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise in Southwestern Pennsylvania and across the state.

Nearly 2,200 people are being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals, including 496 in ICU units, according to the state Department of Health.

During a virtual news conference Wednesday, Dr. John Williams, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UPMC Children’s Hospital, said the region is “in a particularly risky phase of the pandemic for children, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated.”

Children younger than age 12 are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccines and are more at-risk from the Delta variant that has spread across the country.

The best way to protect them, Williams said, is for eligible adults to get vaccinated.

Williams noted that nationally, teens who are not vaccinated are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated teens.

UPMC critical care specialist Dr. Rachel Sackrowitz said more younger, healthy people are being hospitalized for COVID-19.

“We are seeing a truly alarming number of healthy people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s being admitted at UPMC and becoming critically ill, needing ICU care,” said Sackrowitz.

She said that over the past weeks, UPMC has admitted about 20 times more COVID-19 patients under 50 who are unvaccinated than patients the same age who are vaccinated.

Children’s Hospital voiced support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommending universal masking inside schools for students and staff, whether they’re vaccinated or not.

Williams urged parents to get their children vaccinated when they’re eligible, to use face masks, to support mask-wearing in school.

“I would plead with you, as a pediatrician and a parent, let’s all do our part to keep our community safe, especially children, during the pandemic,” he said.

Children’s Hospital has experienced an increase in children requiring medical treatment and hospitalization.

Nationwide, nearly 2,400 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday.

Childhood deaths remain rare, but 520 children have died from COVID.

Said Dr. William Brocklehurst, an emergency room physician at WVU Medicine – Wheeling Hospital, “We have sent children to Children’s Hospital. We’ve sent infants out. It’s happened. It’s not the norm, but we’ve had to.”

According to the DOH, Washington County has reported 143 cases of COVID-19 in children aged 5 to 18, and 23 cases in children 4 and under since Aug. 16, when students began returning to school. In Fayette County, 54 cases have been reported in 5- to 18-year-olds, and 16 cases in children under 4. In Greene County, those numbers are 22 cases and 5 cases, respectively.

As of Thursday, more than 652,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, including 28,498 people in Pennsylvania.

The rate of community spread in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties remains high. In Washington County, an additional 149 cases were reported on Thursday; Fayette added 91 cases, while Greene County saw 33 new cases.

Meanwhile, other health systems are reporting similar situations regarding rising COVID-19 hospital cases.

Dr. David Hess, president of WVU Medicine Uniontown Hospital, said the number of COVID-19 patients there continues to climb.

“It’s concerning, and it seems the folks we’re seeing coming in are younger and sicker. I think we’re seeing the tip of the iceberg, and that’s disturbing.”

Hess said a majority of COVID patients are unvaccinated.

Hess encouraged those who haven’t gotten vaccinated to get the shot.

“If you’ve been holding out, I’d say go out and get vaccinated. Trust the science. It’s the best line of defense,” said Hess. “I’ve had so many patients who are recovering who told me, ‘I should have gotten the vaccine.'”

Mon Valley Hospital also reports increases in COVID-19 patients, primarily who are unvaccinated, and an increase in positive COVID cases in the outpatient and emergency departments.

The number of COVID patients has not impacted bed availability.

Brocklehurst said unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, coupled with the nursing shortage, is placing other hospitals, including his, on the verge of collapse.

“And the frustration is that people assume it’s happening everywhere else and not here – you see what goes on in the South or in New York – but it’s happening here, in our back yard,” said Brocklehurst. “The people who deny this is going on aren’t walking through the hospital halls, they’re not standing next to the person on a ventilator, they’re not in the emergency room.”

A letter Brocklehurst recently wrote – after Wheeling Hospital opened a second pandemic unit and as parents vocally protested mask mandates at schools – gained attention after it was posted on social media.

“I just got off a shift where I admitted three unvaccinated patients, all needing oxygen and one on a ventilator most likely to die in the next few days. Let alone the others that got sent home as there is no cure and they were not sick enough,” Brocklehurst wrote. “Ask any ER, hospitalist, or ICU physician in the Valley what they have been going through. You will get the same answer – we are getting crushed and this is only the beginning.”

At the end of the letter, Brocklehurst apologized for any grammatical errors, noting, “This is at the end of a shift filled with preventable tragedy.”

West Virginia earlier this week reached a record high COVID-19 patients hopitalized in ICUs and on a ventilator.

Brocklehurst said ERs are packed, resulting in delayed treatment for patients coming to the hospital for other medical conditions.

The surge in COVID-19 patients in emergency rooms and hospitals – along with staffing shortages – is putting a strain on health care systems.

“We now have a shortage of staffed beds and even the tertiary care centers (WVU, Allegheny, UPMC) have warned us anyone needing transferred will be waiting 24-72 hours for a bed. That is now, before the main surge happens,” he wrote.

“We feel like people are walking around blissfully ignorant of the hell that’s going on in hospitals,” said Brocklehurst. “I trust my mechanic when he tells me I need new valves. I trust my dentist. You need to listen to the people who are actually taking care of those patients, to the reputable experts. We are telling you those patients are here, this is happening, and it’s serious.”