Nearly 72,000 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in children in 1 week

Nearly 72,000 children across the United States were confirmed to have COVID-19 in a week last month, according to an analysis by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Children accounted for 19% of all new cases recorded for the week ending July 29. Both groups called it a “substantial increase” from the previous week, when around 39,000 cases of children had been recorded.

At least 4.2 million American children have contracted the virus since the start of the pandemic, the organizations say in their new report. In total, there have been around 35.2 million recorded cases across the country, although the true total is believed to be higher.

The good news is that children still very rarely die from the coronavirus or have severe symptoms, which usually include difficulty breathing and fatigue. Children and adolescents are much less likely to require hospitalization; the report found that only 0.1% to 1.9% of all cases in minors involved a hospital stay. Death rates are just as low – of all the people who died from COVID-19 in the United States, only up to 0.03% were children.

However, the report urged caution, saying there is “an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including the ways the virus can harm physical health. long-term effects of infected children “, as well as their mental health.

Public health experts argue that the safest way out of the coronavirus crisis is with widespread vaccination. Amid an increase in cases driven by the more contagious delta variant, the United States this week finally met President Joe Biden’s goal of 70% of American adults who have received at least one dose of a COVID-vaccine. 19.

Anecdotal reports from doctors on the front lines of the COVID-19 response suspect the delta variant is more harmful to young adults – people in their 20s and 30s – than the original variants that circulated in 2020, but the data shows fault.

When viruses are allowed to spread unchecked in a population, it gives them more opportunities to mutate into versions that could be more dangerous.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration plans to fully approve the Pfizer vaccine by early September. The fact that the agency only granted emergency use authorization to available vaccines is commonly cited as one of the potential reasons for low vaccination rates in parts of the United States.