SALT LAKE CITY — More Utah kids are getting sick from COVID-19.
More than two weeks after Halloween, Utah doctors saw an uptick in infants and children with COVID-19 on Monday.
READ: Utah healthcare providers warn of dangerous potential COVID-19 complication in children
“If we are seeing pediatric cases coming 12-14 days after October 31, that might be a signal that maybe we had too much interaction circulating a virus,” said Intermountain Healthcare infectious disease specialist Dr. Todd Vento.
Nearly 500 infants have tested positive in Utah and almost 13,000 kids aged 1 to 14 years since the pandemic began.
COVID experts say the infections, especially among infants and the very young, are more likely coming from family members and not school.
READ: Over 1 million children in U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19
“People always seem to say recently that, ‘oh, kids aren’t affected as much’ and that’s really not a blanket statement. We do have children who have been very sick,” said Dr. Vento.
While the majority of children have mild illness, some suffer from multi-symptom inflammatory syndrome or MISC.
“Children can get very very ill, very quickly,” said Primary Childrens Hospital’s Dr. Erin Teemarcki.
What can start out as a rash, fever and stomach ache can turn into low blood pressure and shock.
Dr. Treemarcki said long term effects of COVID in children includes chronic fatigue, pain and difficulty focusing.
“A lot of these things can impact school attendance, school performance even long-term impacts on extracurricular activities. We are starting to see those referrals at Primary Children’s hospital,” said Dr. Treemarcki.
As Thanksgiving and Christmas creep closer, physicians warn parents not to gather with people they don’t live with.
“It’s the time to sacrifice and really buckle down,” said Dr. Vento.
While rare, doctors in Utah have seen children with Covid suffer blood clots and strokes.