HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — As students start heading back to school, the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases across the nation have been on the rise.
According to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health, over the past two weeks, kids ages zero to 17 made up an average of 18% of the cases in Georgia.
Compare that to the worst of the winter surge back in January where kids made up 11% of the cases.
Fifteen year old Giovanna Stokes was part of that statistic. She tested positive for COVID-19 around July 23rd.
“I was shocked at first because I thought it really couldn't affect kids. But when it did, I was surprised," the Henry County Schools student said.
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Stokes, who has asthma, spent her last weeks of summer quarantining at home. She's just glad she didn't have to spend them in the hospital.
“I was in my room one day laying down and I had body aches and a headache at first," she said. "A couple days later, I started feeling worse, then they put me on medicine, antibiotics. [COVID] made me wheeze. But I have my breathing treatment and all my asthma medicine. I'm grateful that I didn't have to go into hospital because it would have made it even worse."
Her mother, Ollie Moore, had tested positive three days before.
"When she started feeling a little sick saying 'oh, my body, oh my throat' I said, 'oh God, we got to go and get tested'. Even though we were following the 6 foot distance, and I wasn't cooking for her, it still ended up happening," Moore said.
Both Moore and Stokes are unvaccinated. Moore says that while the Henry County School District is not mandating masks, her daughter will be wearing one this school year.
"It is surprising me and actually with kids going to school now it's going to be even more alarming and trying to get kids within the age brackets to keep the mask on and keep sanitized... it is alarming that at first we went to really low numbers with children to now higher numbers," she added.
Right now 10 to 17 year old's make up the largest portion of confirmed cases for children in Georgia.
"We were just a blessing to pull through and still be here alive and healthy," Moore said. "Even not being vaccinated with having COVID.
While pediatric infectious disease experts say there's no hard evidence that proves the Delta variant is making the virus more dangerous for children, the CDC's director said during a briefing Thursday that it's working to figure out if there could potentially be a connection.
What is known, however, is that the Delta variant is much more contagious.