Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been mixed beliefs about whether children were safe during the pandemic, latest data however now show that over 500,000 cases of coronavirus in the US are of children who caught the virus in the start of the pandemic, as per data provided by the American Academy of Paediatrics.
The AAP explains that 9.8% of all cases of coronavirus in the US consist of children alone, this is a large number of children considering the country has above 6.3 million reported cases as per tallied data from Johns Hopkins University.
According to the group, their children make about 70,630 of all the latest reported figures for coronavirus cases. There has also been an increase of 16% over the course of 2 weeks in such cases through the months of August and September. This addition brings the country total to about 513,415 cases. Puerto Rico is one of the 6 states and areas in the US that had a visible rise in child infections.
Children’s Hospital Association also worked alongside the group to organize data regarding children of different ages that were recorded in forty-nine different health units across the states such as Guam, New York City, and Puerto Rico. The group however did not include Texas in the analysis.
Also Read: Italian Doctors Report Kawasaki Disease in Corona-virus Positive Children
The report also revealed that the death toll cumulative for the US children from the novel virus is 103. They also discovered that there were about eighteen states who had no deaths among children due to the virus at all.
The group says that they conclude the severity of illness due to coronavirus in children is rare but they are however potential transmitters for the novel virus and can infect other people who may experience severe symptoms.
The CDC has however brought to notice a distressingly lethal illness in children that is linked directly with coronavirus. Since the middle of May, the agency has been studying outbreaks of a new illness in children called Multisystem-inflammatory Illness, which can prove rather dangerous for children.
The CDC believes the condition has a link with cases of coronavirus in children since it appears after a child catches the infection. Unlike the complications brought by the virus in adults, the syndrome can attack different organs in children and may prove deadly.
By the 3rd of September alone, the CDC has recorded as many as 792 cases of this syndrome with 16 dead among those suffering in almost forty-two states. States such as Washington, New York City, and D.C were among those studied.
Also Read: UK Hospital Starts World’s First Medicinal Trials of Cannabis on Children Born with Brain Injuries
The cases recorded by CDC include children mostly from ages 1 to 14, with 8 years being the average. Another significant factor about these cases is that above 70 percent of the cases include Hispanic children or Black, Their respective number of cases being 276 and 230.
The new figured from AAP has given educators some cause to worry as schools either prepare to reopen or proceed with their first weeks. The data only proves how much the health system has yet to tackle before we will be able to function normally again as a society
