ROANOKE, Va – COVID-19 cases among children are on the rise in the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts.
The health district is reporting nearly 500 new cases of COVID-19 since this time last week.
Right now, about 16% of those cases are children under the age of 18.
Dr. Cynthia Morrow says the rise is likely because a majority of that age group still cannot get the vaccine.
“We look at young people in general 29% of our cases are in people under the age of 25. So we really are seeing a disproportionate extent to transmission in our younger populations we expected this is attributable to the highly infectious Delta variant,” she says.
Morrow says she and her team are working with several school districts to reduce potential COVID-19 exposure among students and staff.
The health district is preparing to administer third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine for those who are immunocompromised.