COVID Cases Are Down In Tennessee, But Pediatric Numbers Continue To Cause Worry

COVID cases are on a pretty steady downward trend in Tennessee after a sharp rise since the Fourth of July. But pediatric cases remain elevated, causing concern for families around the state.

The number of children who are hospitalized statewide is down from a high point around Labor Day. But Hannah Matthew of Rutherford County says COVID was still serious for her fourth grade daughter, who fell ill at the end of August.

“Just because you’re not bad enough to go to the hospital does not mean that it’s not horrific,” she says. “Our little girl came in and woke us up crying because everything hurt so much. And she’s just in tears.”

Matthew and her husband also ended up getting sick, despite being vaccinated. They had to take a week off work. She ended up getting an infusion of monoclonal antibodies once her symptoms persisted.

Rutherford County has had particularly elevated COVID numbers among kids, with more than 1,000 cases in the past 14 days. State data updated weekly finds that cases among school-age children are still roughly where they were at the height of the winter surge.

Courtesy Tennessee Department of Health

This chart is updated weekly by the Tennessee Department of Health. It shows the steep rise in childhood COVID cases as well as the share of overall new cases that are 18 and younger.

A few weeks ago, kids were making up about 40% of all new cases in Tennessee. Since then, more school districts, including Rutherford County Schools, have started requiring masks.

So now children account for roughly one-quarter of all new COVID cases. But that’s still considered high, given that the figure was around 15% for much of the pandemic.

It’ll likely be several more months before all school-age kids are eligible for the vaccine.

“I’m not a worrier, so I was never worried she would die,” says Briana Fulton, a Rutherford County Schools teacher whose 5-year-old tested positive on Labor Day. “But you never know how someone’s body is going to react to the virus.”

In her child’s case, it ended up being two days of vomiting and diarrhea. And Fulton, who is pregnant, never tested positive. She had been vaccinated in April.

But Fulton ended up taking off so much time away from work to care for her daughter that she’s out of sick days for the rest of the school year. And she’s concerned her younger child may also get sick through her daycare.

“I think each family just needs to kind of assess the risk to their family,” she says. “And not necessarily medical risk.”