An average of 672 children were being hospitalized every day in the US, as of 2 January – more than double the average just a week before. And the rate is rapidly increasing…

“We have about four times as many children admitted currently as we have had in any other wave,” Dr Elaine Cox, the chief medical officer for Riley Children’s Health in Indiana, told reporters on Tuesday.

They are also seeing the severity rise among the children who are admitted to the hospital, Cox said. “So there are more of them, and they are sicker.”

More than half the hospitalized children have had to spend time in the intensive care unit, and at least 40% of those kids need to be put on a ventilator, she said.