KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As of July 24, Children's Mercy had confirmed 247 pediatric patients who tested positive for COVID-19.
It might sound like a big number, but that's also out of 8,303 children who were tested. At last check, Children's Mercy also had one child hospitalized.
Dr. Jennifer Schuster, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Children's Mercy, said common symptoms in children include cough or shortness of breath, fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
"In our older children, we're seeing what we're maybe seeing described in adults, which is loss of sense of taste or smell," Schuster told 41 Action News.
She says the hospital also is seeing older pediatric patients with sore throats and headaches.
Those are symptoms two Shawnee sisters experienced when they battled the novel coronavirus back in March.
"It was kind of just like a cold for me, but my voice was really hoarse, and my throat was pretty dry," said 15-year-old Claire Green, who notes she felt better in about three days. Her older sister's symptoms lasted a week.
"I've never really been sick like that before, I was just so tired, and then just like a migraine the whole week," her sister, 18-year-old Grace, said.
While both girls have recovered, there are rare cases with tragic outcomes.
That includes a 9-year-old girl in Florida who reportedly had no underlying health conditions. Kimora Lynumm died last Saturday, and she is the youngest person in the state to die from COVID-19 complications.
Her family is now speaking out against sending children back to school amid rising case numbers.
"So the message I want to get out, number one is to our governor: Don't use our kids in the state of Florida as pawns, as experiments," family spokesperson DeJeon Cain said.
Here in the Kansas City metro, Children's Mercy isn't making recommendations on whether students should or shouldn't return to school. Hospital officials say parents need to decide what's right for their family.
However, the hospital system is offering guidance on best practices for schools that do reopen.
"They include keeping desks apart, physical barriers. For parents, they include guidance on when and how to keep kids at home," Schuster said. "For schools, they include recommendations on how to do routine cleaning as well as after a child has been sick at school."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new guidance on when children should stay home from school, which includes a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher or signs of the illness, such as cough, headaches, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea or body aches. Children should also stay home if they've had close contact to a known COVID-19 case, according to the CDC.
Overall, Children's Mercy says the cases doctors are seeing are mild, with the exception of eight pediatric patients who developed multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, a condition that appears to occur three to four weeks after contracting COVID-19. It can cause inflammation in various parts of the body, including the heart, lungs and gastrointestinal tract.
If you suspect your child has COVID-19 or you have questions about their health, you can call the Children's Mercy COVID-19 hotline at 816-302-8800.
