At least 3.03 million children in the U.S. have tested positive for coronavirus since the pandemic settled in the county last year, a new report found.
Last week, nearly 100,000 children were diagnosed with COVID-19, revealed the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
Pediatric cases account for 13% of all infections in the United States, a six-fold increase since mid-April, when they accounted for just 2%.
Encouragingly, COVID-19 is still rarely deadly to children, with a death rate of just 0.01 percent.
But, anecdotally, doctors are warning of a micro trend: they are seeing more critical cases of life-threatening COVID-related inflammatory disease in children, which can become deadly.
Since February 11, at least 3.03 million children in the United States have had a coronavirus test, representing 13% of all cases in the United States
Between February 4 and 11, 99,078 childhood cases of COVID-19 were reported, which represents an 8% increase over the previous two weeks
Wyoming has the highest percentage of cumulative cases of children at 19.8% and North Dakota has the highest rate with around 8,400 cases per 100,000 children. In the photo: a child puts his test swab into the pool test flask at the South Boston Catholic Academy in Boston, Massachusetts, January 2021
According to the report, the overall pediatric coronavirus case rate is 4,034 infections per 100,000 children in the population.
This represents a 255% increase over October, when there were 1,134 infections per 100,000 children in the population.
Between February 4 and 11, a total of 99,078 new childhood cases of COVID-19 were reported.
The jump from 2,816,775 to 3,033,370 means that there has been an 8% increase in the past two weeks.
Currently, there are nine states that report 16% or more of their cumulative cases among children: Alaska, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming.
Currently, there are nine states that report 16% or more of their cumulative cases among children (above)
Wyoming has the highest percentage of cumulative cases of children, with 19.8% of all cases in the state among its youngest residents.
Only three places in the U.S. – Florida, New Jersey and New York – reported that less than 10 percent of cases are among children.
Nine states report more than 6.00 cases per 100,000 children: Arkansas, Arizona, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
North Dakota has the highest rate, with about 8,400 cases per 100,000 children
As of February 16, children accounted for no more than 2.9% of all reported hospitalizations.
The report says there were 240 confirmed deaths of children from the virus, with only eight states and the District of Columbia reporting no pediatric deaths.
“At this point, it appears that serious illnesses caused by COVID-19 are rare among children,” says the report.
“However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus can harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental effects.”
Nine states report more than 6.00 cases per 100,000 children: Arkansas, Arizona, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming
The reports come in the wake of doctors across the U.S. reporting an increase in the number of young people with Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C.
MIS-C is a condition in which different parts of the body can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs.
The condition is still rare, with only 2,060 cases in 48 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and 30 deaths.
However, according to The New York Times, children with MIS-C are more sick than during the first wave of cases.
“We really don’t know what will happen in the long run,” said Dr. Jean Ballweg, medical director of pediatric heart transplantation and advanced heart failure at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.
Children’s Hospital & Medical Center reported about two cases of MIS-C per month from April to October, with about 30 percent ending up in the intensive care unit (ICU).
However, the hospital treated 10 cases in December and 12 in January, with 60 percent of the total needing ICU care.
Ballweg told The Times that at the beginning of the pandemic, most cases of MIS-C occurred among Latin or black children.
However, now, his hospital ‘is seeing a much broader spectrum and all ethnicities’.
