Over 15.5 million children in U.S. infected with COVID-19

March 29

 

Over 15.5 million children in the United States are reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

 

Over 66,000 of these cases have been added in the past 4 weeks, according to the report. Over 13,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported in the week ending March 23.

 

Over the past six months, weekly reported child cases in the United States have plateaued at an average of about 30,000 cases, according to the report.

 

Reported cases are likely a "substantial undercount" of COVID-19 cases among children, said the report.

 

There is a 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 report.

 

With the highest number of cases and fatalities, the US remains the worst-hit country by the Covid pandemic.

 

As of Wednesday morning, the country's caseload and death toll stood at 106,120,651 and 1,153,972, respectively.

 

xinhua