currently hospitalized. eight in the icu. we re seeing kids who are more ill with severe acute covid even with children not having previous illnesses. reporter: donovan is 11 years old and on monday she was admitted to children s in mississippi. i was trying to get him vaccinated. he was not old enough. reporter: his parents think he got the virus at school. he has asthma and had been wearing mask but they say other students did not. the school failed for us. it s a lot for an 11 yeerkd to go through. reporter: severe illness and death in children from covid-19 is extremely rare. of nearly 615,000 covid deaths nationwide, just 361 have been people under the age of 18. donovan s parents with this warning. i would never thought it would happen to my son but he is human. reporter: a mississippi chapter of the american academy of pediatrics has called on
reporter: his parents think he got the virus at school. donovan has asthma, and had been wearing a mask, but they say other students did not. the school failed us it s a lot for an 11-year-old to go through. reporter: severe illness and death in children from covid-19 is extremely rare. of nearly 615,000 covid deaths nationwide, just 361 have been people under the age of 18. but tonight donovan s parents with this warning. i would never thought it got to my son, but he is human take precaution by wearing your mask and getting this vaccination. ellison, mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates. the doctors you spoke to say that s the primary problem. yeah, that s right, lester among older mississippians who have higher rates of vaccination, covid cases are down it s the younger population they re particularly worried about. lester all right, ellison barber, thank you. we re tracking