CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — City officials confirmed during Tuesday's City Council meeting that seven children currently are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Nueces County.
Dr. Luis Wilmont, interim assistant director of public health, said two children under the age of 1 have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and are being cared for.
The city also reports that two more who are 1 year old, one who is aged 2, a 17-year-old and 18-year-old patient on the children's list. All of them were unvaccinated.
"That's concerning, because even during the peak - our larger peaks of COVID hospitalizations and cases - we were averaging two or three on our bad days," Wilmont said.
Wilmont said the city currently has 119 people hospitalized for the coronavirus, representing almost a 500 percent increase from earlier in the month.
The number of patients in local intensive care units with COVID-19 is currenly at 33 patients, compared to seven earlier in the month.
With the first day of school set for them in two weeks, Corpus Christi Independent School District officials say they are closely watching the coronavirus statistics as they are released.
“We join our community in closely monitoring COVID-19 in our area," CCISD director of communications Leanne Libby said. "We encourage persons 12 and older to get vaccinated if they have not already done so. CCISD will continue to work with local and state officials as well as monitor federal guidelines as we prepare for the new school year.“
We'll have more on this breaking news story as we learn about it.