While younger people typically have less severe symptoms of COVID-19, State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box warns that they aren’t without risk. During Wednesday’s briefing, Box noted that children and young adults make up an increasing share of the state’s cases.
“Much of this is due to increased testing in these age groups, especially in the university setting,” Box acknowledged. “But we also continue to see cases tied to gatherings of young people, such as sleepovers, parties, and other gatherings. Fortunately, we don’t see a lot of COVID hospitalizations in children and young adults.”
Almost 63 percent of the state’s student cases have occurred in college students, with sharp increases since school began. But Box said high school students also make up a sizable portion. “As more schools return in person, we need to pay attention to these data and recognize that peer-to-peer transmission is occurring more frequently in teenagers and young adults,” she said. “This is likely because these age groups are less likely to observe social distancing, don’t wear their masks regularly, and have larger social bubbles.”
Box also reported that Indiana has now had 17 confirmed cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children under 18, but she said all of them have been discharged.
She said work continues to build a public dashboard of COVID-19 cases in schools. The Indiana Department of Health has given schools until Sunday to provide all of their COVID-19 data since the start of the school year. They should also be able to start entering their daily case information by the end of the week.
Box hopes to be able to release a snapshot of historical data by next week.
