San Diego-The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges young people to get vaccinated because of an increase in the number of people between the ages of 12 and 17 who are hospitalized.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the use of Pfizer vaccine in people 12 years and older on May 12 last month.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that she is “deeply concerned about the number of adolescents in hospital and saddened by the number of adolescents who need to be treated in intensive care units or mechanical ventilation.”

A kind report It shows that for teenagers hospitalized with COVID-19 from January to March of 204: 1/3 need to be admitted to the ICU, and 5% need ventilators. Not a single teenager died.

According to Varensky, the only way to prevent teenagers from being hospitalized is to get vaccinated.

“Unfortunately, COVID-19 does not discriminate against age, gender, race, and ethnicity,” said Dr. Edward Cachay, a health and infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Diego.

Cachay said that 70% of hospital admissions have potential risk factors, “mainly overweight and obesity, but one-third of hospitalized adolescents have no risk factors.”

“I invite my parents, relatives and close friends to discuss the importance of these prevention strategies with young people and encourage them to get vaccinated,” Varensky said.

More than 2 million San Diego residents have been vaccinated in San Diego County, 134,000 of whom were between 12 and 19 years old.

You can view the full list of Pfizer vaccination locations Here.

Reddy Children’s Hospital also accepts appointments from anyone 12 years and older on its website.