BLUE ASH, Ohio — The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended all children should wear masks indoors, and local pediatricians said masks indoors will help keep children safe as they see a rise in COVID-19 cases among kids.
"Things are changing right now," Dr. Nicole Baldwin, with Northeast Cincinnati Pediatrics, said. "Now as Covid's going up, and we are seeing more kids with upper respiratory illnesses, we are testing more kids."
Baldwin said the delta variant, which is more contagious, should cause people to be extra vigilant, especially people with children under 12 since they can't get vaccinated yet.
"Right now, as Covid cases, delta variant is really starting to flare, we're going to hopefully know in several weeks if we see an uptick in hospitalizations, and... hopefully not but... uptick in deaths in children," she said.
Even if the delta variant isn't worse, Baldwin said even mild COVID-19 cases can have long lasting repercussions.
"Even if they're not hospitalized, even if they don't have severe disease there are consequences that are affecting their quality of life for months," Baldwin said. "Because they're tired, because they can't smell, because they can't taste, because they're wheezing when they've never wheezed before so they can't run and play basketball like they used to. I mean all of those things are happening."
Baldwin said as children return to the classroom, there will be more children diagnosed with COVID-19, and in order to minimize those those, children should wear masks indoors.
