Baystate Pediatric Emergency Room Grapples With Omicron Variant

By JULIE CUNNINGHAM

(Western, MA) Baystate Children’s Hospital in Springfield is reporting up to 100 positive pediatric COVID-19 cases a day and is urging parents to avoid coming into the pediatric emergency room for mild cold symptoms. Instead, officials from Baystate Children’s are encouraging parents to call their pediatricians for a COVID -19 test if they suspect their child is ill. The transmissibility of the Omicron variant is causing an overflow of patients in the Pediatric Emergency Room, increasing the waiting time for more severe cases.  Most of the current patients admitted into the ER for COVID-19 are unvaccinated, according to officials.