Nearly 480,000 children infected with COVID-19 in US: report

Nearly 480,000 child COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States since the onset of the pandemic, according to a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

While children represented only 9.5 percent of all cases in states reporting cases by age, a total of 476,439 children have tested positive for COVID-19, said the report released on Monday.

The overall rate is 631 cases per 100,000 children in the population.

According to the report, 70,330 new child cases were reported from Aug 13 to 27, a 17 percent increase in child cases over two weeks.

Children were 0.6 to 4.1 percent of total reported hospitalizations, and 0 to 0.3 percent of all COVID-19 deaths, said the report.

“At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children. However, states should continue to provide detailed reports on COVID-19 cases, testing, hospitalizations, and mortality by age so that the effects of COVID-19 on children’s health can be documented and monitored,” said the report.