Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Stephens has continued to keep his patients and their families on top of the COVID-crisis with video messages found on his Cornerstone Pediatrics Facebook page.
(Seguin) – A local pediatrician is confirming what he says has been an uptick of reported positive COVID-19 cases among Seguin’s youngest patients. Dr. Bob Stephens, of Cornerstone Pediatrics, says the virus this past week alone brought in multiple patients into his office.
“I can say that here in my office, I’ve seen that. I went for about four or five weeks without any positive cases but in the last week, I’ve had a half a dozen positive COVID cases coming through my office including one this morning (Friday) so far. We are seeing it in children as well and with school looming on the horizon about a month from now, that poses particular problems for getting kids back in the classroom,” said Dr. Stephens.
Dr. Stephens says an increase in cases is worrisome with the newest threat of the Delta, the now dominant COVID variant said to be hitting hospitals hard and reportedly targeting children.
“Guadalupe County this week has seen I think something like 170 new cases, just since Monday so it’s definitely here. We haven’t seen a rise in death rates yet because that usually lags about three to four weeks behind the rise in cases but that’s going to be coming. The concerning part is that the Delta variant is, of course, more highly contagious, but it also seems to be hitting younger people harder than the previous strain and that might be because older people have tended to be more highly vaccinated than younger people but if you look across the country, as the hospitals are filling up, a lot of those folks are younger this time which is different than what we saw in the first two waves of the pandemic,” said Dr. Stephens.
According to the University of Texas Health Systems, this new virus is said to be “much more transmissible and that kids admitted to the hospitals with it are sicker.” They add that the Delta variant is even forcing doctors to put children on ventilators which could cause long-term damage.
Dr. Stephens says an increase in the virus and this new strain, again, poses a whole new threat to those not vaccinated and to those under the age of 12.
“Clearly, we are seeing an uptick in COVID cases, both statewide and locally and what we see is that — actually this is reflecting the trend that we are seeing across the country with the prevalence of the Delta variance taking over in terms of the dominant strain of the Corona virus that is circulating and of course, the areas that are most hard hit are the areas with the lowest vaccination rates and that includes Texas and that includes our region as well. So, that’s what is driving this increase,” said Dr. Stephens.
Knowing how to truly identify the symptoms of the virus he says will be even more important for local families.
“The symptomatology seems to be the same so children in general tend to be still less severely affected and their symptoms tend to be consistent with a run of the mill cold. So, they will have a runny nose, nasal congestion, coughing — they may have fever. Some of the older kids will often describe a loss of sense of taste, a loss of sense of smell but in the little ones, in particular, we are seeing more basically what is like cold symptoms and like I said, most kids recover and do just fine, but the concern is they can spread it to adults and older adults who may be more severely affected if they get COVID,” said Dr. Stephens.
When asked about his advice to parents, Dr. Stephens says getting vaccinated is clearly the first step.
“If they are 12 and older, I encourage them to get vaccinated. It is the number one way to protect yourself and your family and your community and what we have seen nationwide and in Texas is that over 95 percent of the people who are being hospitalized or who are dying from COVID are unimmunized. So, that vaccine is the number one most important way that you can protect yourself and what it is clearly showing is that the vaccines are highly affective against the Delta variant, so it is a really good idea to protect yourself and others by getting the vaccine. That is the number one thing,” said Dr. Stephens.
Dr. Stephens says the timing for this surge also makes it difficult for everyone as it comes right before when many of his patients are preparing to head back to class.
“My concern is that we are seeing this rise starting now and we know that previous rises have tended to last for several weeks and that is going to carry us right into when kids are going back into the classroom, and I’m concerned that it’s going to accelerate the spread of the virus and make this spike worse than it otherwise will be. So, get the vaccine if you can. Mask if you cannot and continue to be careful because we are not over this yet,” said Dr. Stephens.
Since those 12 and older are the only ones who can currently get vaccinated, Dr. Stephens says it will be up to the families of the younger children to help protect them.
“I think masks are going to be optional in schools and I would strongly encourage parents to have their children wear a mask at the younger ages if they are not able to be immunized. I know that’s going to be difficult with peer pressure where not all of the children in the classroom are going to be masking now but I think mask wearing in the unimmunized population is going to really be critical for cutting down on the spread in the schools when classes resume this fall,” said Dr. Stephens.
As a message to the rest of the community, Dr. Stephens says it’s going to have to take each of us to finally grab a hold of this pandemic.
“There is going to be a subset of people who under no circumstances are going to receive the vaccine and while that is unfortunate, we know that group of people exist and so, mask wearing, hand washing, avoiding large gatherings — all of those things remain extremely effective in terms of preventing the spread of the illness and I will say frankly that I think immunized people should consider masking up as well when they are going to be in indoor areas with large numbers of people so for instance, going to HEB, going to another retail location, going to indoor parties, I would strongly urge everyone to mask whether immunized or not because it’s going to cut down on the spread,” said Dr. Stephens.
Cornerstone Pediatrics is located at 523 E. Court St.