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\u00a9 Meridith Kohut for The New York Times\u00a0A nurse cares for Cerena Gonzales, 14, as she recovers in the Children\u2019s Hospital of San Antonio on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Delta variant is driving a new wave of cases nationwide, pushing the daily total to the highest level since February, as the virus spreads among the unvaccinated. In Texas, the number of new cases has more than doubled in the past two week.\u00a0Hospitals are swamped, and there is a new, troubling uptick of young patients: some 240 across the state.
\u201cWe are now entering a new phase where our volumes are increasing much more exponentially here, just like on the adult side,\u201d said Dr. Norman Christopher, the chief medical officer at the Children\u2019s Hospital of San Antonio. \u201cAnd that\u2019s compared to almost nobody just a few months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were not seeing this last year,\u201d Dr. Patel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rising number of cases among children kept Jennifer Gantt, 45, from bringing her 6-year-old son, Christopher, who suffers from a rare brain condition, to the hospital even after he began experiencing severe seizures. A nurse inserted a swab to test him for the virus as the boy twisted in bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI hesitated bringing him here, because of the Covid situation,\u201d said Ms. Gantt. The emergency room was full of children coughing behind their masks and worried parents in tears. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to risk him getting infected. But eventually I knew I had to bring him here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Less than an hour later, she received news that not every parent gets to hear at the children\u2019s hospital. Christopher had tested negative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"