'A very rough fall in Seattle for pediatric patients' as delta variant spreads

The now-dominant delta variant has changed the pandemic we’ve come to know so well. Whereas kids were previously less affected by the coronavirus, they are now increasingly at risk.

This has many families wondering how they should balance their kids' childhood with protecting them from the pandemic.

“Across the country, and certainly here in Seattle, we are starting to see numbers of pediatric hospital patients go up,” Dr. Elizabeth Meade told Seattle Now.

Meade practices pediatric hospital medicine at Swedish Medical Center.

"Even though that percentage of kids with dramatic illness or serious illness is still small, the overall numbers are continuing to climb," Meade said. "We are hearing from units across the country that they are full with Covid patients. And we anticipate that this is going to be a very rough fall in Seattle for pediatric patients as well.”