Sixth Mississippi child dies from COVID-19

In this week’s Mississippi State Department of Health COVID update meeting topics discussed include the increasing numbers of pediatric hospitalizations, the use of ivermectin vs. the vaccine, and booster shots now available at county health departments.

Mississippi health officials said that a child under the age of five has died from COVID-19.

Dr. Paul Byers, the state epidemiologist, said it was the state’s sixth pediatric death from the virus since the pandemic began. He said the health department would not provide any identifying information, including where the child lived.

Since yesterday’s full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine, state health officials urge children under 12 to get vaccinated as the number of pediatric cases continue to rise. Dr. Byers said, “The surge of the delta variant really since we started seeing this in mid-June and early July, we have seen some increases in the number of pediatric admissions due to COVID. Certainly, we’ve seen increases in pediatric patients who have had to be either in the intensive care unit for treatment or been on the ventilator.”

Today across Mississippi, MSDH reports there are seven children in the intensive care unit including three on a ventilator.