An NPR member station
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Health leaders urge families to vaccinate children against COVID as cases in young people rise

Rebecca White/SPR

More than 70 providers in Spokane County are providing, or will soon provide, pediatric Covid-19 vaccinations. Spokane Regional Health District Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velazquez says families should take advantage of the opportunity, because case numbers are rising among children and young people

“Initially in the pandemic, we all had information that the original variants were not as effective in pediatric cases, and we didn’t see as much transmission in children,” he says, “there are other reasons for that, mainly schools were closed. We have seen with the Delta variant that has been a different picture, we’ve seen a lot more cases than we’ve seen in pediatric before.”

Velazquez says three children are currently hospitalized with coronavirus and cases are trending younger.

“Younger than 40 is about 56% of all cases and we have seen a higher case rate in children under 12 and under 17,” he says.

The Health District is also partnering with Spokane Public Schools to offer a clinic at Shade High School November 20.

Rebecca White is a 2018 graduate of Edward R Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. She's been a reporter at Spokane Public Radio since February 2021. She got her start interning at her hometown paper The Dayton Chronicle and previously covered county government at The Spokesman-Review.
Related Content