The United States is seeing a spike in cases of coronavirus among children, a new report suggests.
Nearly 94,000 kids tested positive for the virus last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
This figure is a more than 30 percent jump from the roughly 72,000 children who contracted COVID-19 the previous week.
It brings the total of pediatric Covid cases to more than 4.2 million since the start of the pandemic.
However, the infections are rarely fatal with just 0.01 percent, or 371, resulting in death.
Of those pediatric fatalities, 35 have occurred since the Indian ‘Delta’ variant-fueled surge took hold in late June of this year.
Nearly 94,000 American children tested positive for COVID-19 last week, up 31% from the nearly 72,000 the previous week (above)
Since the start of the pandemic, 371 children have died, meaning 0.008% of all infected children have died from COVID-19. Pictured: A health worker collects a swab sample from a child to test for COVID-19 in Tel Aviv, Israel, August 9
According to the report, 93,824 children tested positive for the virus between July 29 and August 5, bringing the total to 4,292,120 cases since March 2020.
This is a 31 percent increase from the 71,726 under-18s confirmed to have Covid the previous week.
Although adults are more likely to contract the virus than children. kids currently make up 15 percent of all cases in the U.S.
Currently, there are 10 states that report 18 percent or more of their cumulative cases are among children: Vermont, Alaska, South Carolina, Maine, Tennessee, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Washington.
Vermont has the most with more than 22 percent of all the state’s cases among its youngest residents.
Currently, there are 10 states that report 18% or more of their cumulative cases are among children (above)
Meanwhile, just one state – Florida – reported fewer than 10 percent of its cumulative cases are among kids.
Additionally, over the last two weeks, six states have seen a more than eight percent increase in child cases: Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri
Since the pandemic began, children have made up for between 11 percent and 20 percent of total state tests.
Of the states that still report pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations, no more than 1.9 percent of child cases resulted in hospitalization.
In total, there have been 17,413 cumulative child hospitalizations, meaning about 0.4 percent of all children who contract COVID-19 are hospitalized.
Children have made up no more than 0.26 percent of virus-related deaths in states and seven states have reported no pediatric deaths.
Since the start of the pandemic, 371 children have died, according to the report. This means 0.008 percent of all infected children have died from COVID-19.
Over the past few weeks, the Delta variant has taken over as the dominant strain in the U.S., with reports that it it sending more children to the hospital because they are getting sicker more quickly than seen with previous variants.
Between June 24 and August 5, 35 children have died, the AAP data show.
‘At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children,’ the report reads.
‘However, states should continue to provide detailed reports on COVID-19 cases, testing, hospitalizations, and mortality by age and race/ethnicity so that the effects of COVID-19 on children’s health can be documented and monitored.’
COVID-19 vaccines are currently authorized in the U.S. for children ages 12 and older but the vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is the only option.
Pfizer and Moderna are both running clinical trials on kids as young as six months old with hopes of receiving emergency use authorizations before the end of the year.
But polls find that parents of children seem to be evenly split on whether or not their kids will be receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
One survey, conducted by CS Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health at Michigan Medicine last month, found that 39 percent of parents said their children already gotten a coronavirus shot.
However, 40 percent of parents also said it was ‘unlikely’ that their children would be getting vaccinated.’
Source: Sound Health and Lasting Wealth
