ITASCA, IL --COVID-19 cases among US children have reached a staggering new high, far exceeding the peak of past waves of the pandemic, according to the Children and COVID-19: State Data Report, developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
More than 580,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported for the week ending Jan. 6th, marking a 78% increase over the 325,000 new cases reported the prior week.
“Since many children remain unvaccinated – or are too young to be vaccinated – children are bearing a disproportionate burden of this illness,” said AAP President Moira Szilagyi, MD, PhD, FAAP. “These are challenging times.”
Nearly 8.5 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, and nearly 11% of these cases have been added in the past two weeks, according to the weekly report that compiles state-by-state data on COVID-19 cases in children.
“The good news is that we know much more about this virus than we did two years ago, and we have more tools at our disposal,” Dr. Szilagyi said. “We understand the disease and how best to isolate and care for infected patients. We have access to masks and other personal protective equipment. And we have a vaccine that offers strong protection against severe illness, even with Omicron.”
While the Omicron variant has infected both vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, those who are vaccinated are much less likely to become severely sick or be hospitalized. Millions of children and teens have now been vaccinated, and the safety data are very reassuring. The vaccine works well to protect children from the worst effects of the disease, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C).
The report is updated here every Monday: Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report. The data on new case numbers is limited because of reliance on how each state reports its cases.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.