KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Schools across Jackson County start Monday while case rates of COVID-19 infections skyrocket among school-age children.
The number of COVID-19 infections among children from 5 to 19 years old is considerably higher than last August, a fact that worries county health officials.
“That’s the thing that concerns me the most,” said Chip Cohlmia, the Jackson County Health Department’s communicable disease prevention and public health preparedness division manager. “We are about to head into the school year when the base level infection rate for school kids is already higher.
As the 2020-21 school started, the COVID-19 case rate per 100,000 school-age children was relatively low from mid-July to mid-August:
- Cases rates for children ages 5-9 fluctuated between 20 and 70 new infections;
- Cases rates for children ages 10-14 fluctuated between 30 and 75 new infections;
- Case rates for the 15-to-19-year-old age group fluctuated between 130 and 260.
But those infections have climbed amid the latest surge fueled by the delta variant.
- Case rates for children ages 5-9 have climbed well above 200;
- Case rates for children ages 10-14 have surged well past 300;
- Case rates for the 15-19 group reached higher than 600 for the week of Aug. 1.
The current case rates are near record levels for Jackson County — outside of Kansas City and Independence, which have their own health departments — among children, approaching the peaks seen from November through January last year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit its highest point in the Kansas City region.
“It’s ramping up to be a very delicate situation, especially considering the case rates that we are seeing in younger populations,” Cohlmia said. “They are going up. ... We are seeing a lot more illness in younger populations now.”
Children’s Mercy Hospital dealt with a record number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients this summer, which health officials attribute to the emergence of the more transmissible delta variant.
“If you want to keep kids safe and you want to keep kids in school, then you better have masks on,” Dr. Steven Stites, the chief medical officer for The University of Kansas Health System, said. “You saw the stats — Children’s Mercy has a lot of COVID kids now. This is different; the delta variant is different.”
Vaccination remains the most important line of defense for children against the pandemic, according to doctors and health experts.
But with children under 12 years old still ineligible for the vaccine and low vaccination rates on the Missouri side for children ages 12 to 17 — 19.6% in Cass County, 25.5% in Clay County, 25.3% in Jackson County and 27.3% in Platte County, according to the Mid-America Regional Council’s Kansas City Region COVID-19 Data Hub — health officials recommend additional measures.
The most important, and often most contentious, is requiring masks in schools.
“Here’s the deal: If you choose not to mask, then the very thing you want your kids to do — to come and be in person — you’re going to blow it up, because you’re going to have to shut down,” Stites said. “It’s just not necessary. It’s not that hard to wear a mask, folks.”
Health officials also encourage social distancing and improved ventilation indoors, including opening windows when possible, but masks are the best option besides an increase in vaccination among the school-age population.
“Wearing masks, it works in kids,” Dr. Mario Castro, a researcher at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, said.
Doctors with the KU Health System said the FDA may approve emergency use authorization of the vaccine for children ages 6 to 11 years old as soon as next month, but schools shouldn’t let other mitigation strategies lapse.
“The majority of spread is going to be outside of that school in those other public settings or social settings, but we still need to do what we can in those situations,” Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System, said.
