The number of children hospitalised with Covid-19 in the United States hit a record high of just over 1,900, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The Delta variant, which is rapidly spreading among the unvaccinated portion of the US population, has caused hospitalisations to spike in recent weeks, driving up the number of pediatric hospitalisations to 1,902 on Saturday, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Children currently make up about 2.4 per cent of the nation's Covid-19 hospitalisations, Reuters reports.

Kids under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine, leaving them more vulnerable to infection from the new, highly transmissible variant than they were earlier in the pandemic.