(WXYZ) — Younger children are not eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine just yet, putting them at a greater risk of catching COVID-19.
As schools reopen for the year, health officials say pediatric cases of the virus are surging across the nation.
We're being joined for the 7 UpFront segment by Dr. Rudolph Valentini, Chief Medical Officer at DMC Children's Hospital of Michigan to talk about what they're seeing here in Michigan.
You can see the full interview in the video player above.
"I think what we are seeing is the kids are back to school, they're mingling, they're interacting, they are getting sick with some viral infections," Valentini says. "The big virus we're seeing is actually Respiratory syncytial virus, we call it RSV. We've seen a big uptick in RSV at our Children's Hospital of Michigan over the last few weeks. We are not seeing, fortunately, a lot of COVID activity, so that's a good thing. Fortunately, we can get children vaccinated, some of them, at those that are over 12. So, so far, so good on the COVID front. We do not have that many children hospitalized at Children's Hospital of Michigan or across the state when I correspond with our statewide network of pediatric Chief Medical Officers."
