Cook Children's Medical Center's intensive care unit now has more kids in the hospital with COVID-19 than at any other time during the pandemic.
"69 is a lot of kids," says Cheryl Peterson, chief nursing officer, "and my adult hospital partners are seeing much the same."
Peterson says the situation is nearing crisis level.
"We are at capacity and have been running at capacity for weeks," she says.
And the worst likely isn't over yet.
"What I hear from the epidemiologist is we will not peak for three to four weeks," says Peterson.
This comes as the Omicron variant continues to rapidly spread throughout the country.
The symptoms related to omicron are said to be more mild, but Peterson throws caution at that notion.
"The acuity of our patients in the hospital in general appears to be less than previous variants," Peterson says, "but that's all varied depending on the risk factors any patient possesses and how that virus afflicts them."
Peterson says parents are taking their kids to Cook Children's main campus or at any of its urgent care facilities just to get tested for COVID.
She urges against that.
"We would really direct our community to seek out testing options, either within the community or public health department ... or with their primary care physician," says Peterson.
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