Huntsville Hospital’s Fever & Flu Clinic turning into kids COVID testing site

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - With COVID cases rising among children, now more than ever, pediatric emergency rooms are filling up. Huntsville Hospital turned its Fever & Flu Clinic into a testing site solely for children for part of the week.

When the pandemic first hit, the elderly population was the main concern, and that’s no longer the case.

“The Delta variant does appear to be pretty rampant among children this go around where is it was not the case in the winter,” said Crestwood Medical Center CEO Dr. Pan Hudson.

Hudson says there are 7 pediatric COVID patients in the hospital in Madison County.

“We at Women and Children’s are seeing an increase in our inpatient pediatric volume both on our floor and also in our intensive care setting,” said Huntsville Hospital’s Women and Children’s service line administrator Cheryl Case.

It’s not just Madison County. In Decatur, the hospital turned its mobile medical unit into a COVID testing site to help make space in emergency rooms.

“We have seen a lot of kids, we’ve got a lot of kids coming through from the school system. Probably 20, 25 kids a day,” said Decatur-Morgan Hospital registered nurse Christy Such.

Case says there has been a much greater need for kids to get tested just in the last month.

“Our goal with providing this is that we can have the service here at the Fever & Flu Clinic, and that will help just decrease the volume that our pediatric emergency room is feeling,” said Case.

The testing clinic is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m.

Copyright 2021 WAFF. All rights reserved.