Los Angeles [US], August 27:About 80,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States for the week ending Aug. 18, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.
Almost 14.4 million children have been reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the report.
Over 358,000 of these cases have been added in the past 4 weeks, and approximately 6.5 million reported cases have been added in 2022, according to the report.
Since the pandemic began, children represented 18.4 percent of total cumulated cases in the United States, according to the AAP.
There is an urgent need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects, said the AAP.
"It is important to recognize there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children's health, but importantly we need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth," said the AAP.
Source: Xinhua