Nearly 7.2 million children in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to a latest report of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.
A total of 7,196,901 child COVID-19 cases had been reported across the country as of Dec. 9, and children represented 17.2 percent of all confirmed cases, according to the report published on Monday.
The overall rate was 9,562 cases per 100,000 children in the population.
Over 164,000 child cases were added the past week, an increase of nearly 24 percent over the prior week. This marked the 18th consecutive week child COVID-19 cases are above 100,000.
Since the first week of September, there have been over 2.1 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.
Children accounted for 1.7 percent to 4 percent of total reported hospitalizations, and 0 to 0.27 percent of all COVID-19 deaths, said the report.
"At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects," the AAP said in the report.
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