US paediatricians warn: 78% more Covid cases among children in one week

By Cristiano Antonino Last updated Jan 19, 2022

US paediatricians warn: 78% more Covid cases among children in one week

US, American Academy of Pediatrics paediatricians report more than half a million new Covid cases in children reported in one week: cumulative paediatric cases since start of pandemic exceed 8.5 million

Covid cases among children in the United States have reached a staggering new record, far surpassing the peak of past pandemic waves, 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 childhood COVID-19 cases were reported in the week ending 6 January, marking a 78% increase from the 325,000 new cases reported the previous week.

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Covid among children, US paediatricians warn

“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).

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