US Sees Huge Spike in COVID Cases in Kids

28% for a new record
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 24, 2020 4:03 AM CST
COVID Cases in Kids Jump 28% for New Record
Parents and children gather in front of New York's City Hall to protest the closing of public schools on Thursday.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The US has just seen its largest single week increase in coronavirus cases in kids. There were 144,145 new cases among children 17 and under from Nov. 12 to 19—"by far the highest weekly increase since the pandemic began," the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday. That total marks a 28% increase over the previous week ending Nov. 12, which saw 112,000 new COVID-19 cases among children and also broke records, per Smithsonian. Almost 1.2 million US children had tested positive as of Nov. 19, representing 11.8% "of all cases in states reporting cases by age," said the AAP, which analyzed data from 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Hospitalizations and death among children remain uncommon. Still, the AAP is pressing health authorities to include children in vaccine trials.

"If we do not add children to these research trials very soon, there will be a significant delay in when children are able to access potentially life-saving vaccines. This is unconscionable," AAP President Sally Goza says in a release. "Children are not little adults," adds Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases. "We must have studies showing they are safe and effective in children as well." This comes as experts predict a surge in cases with more than 3 million people venturing through US airport checkpoints over the weekend. "These people are infecting each other, and they're going to infect the people that they're having Thanksgiving with," Dr. William Haseltine, president of ACCESS Health International, tells CNN. He predicts "a huge increase in what's already a horrendous spike" of cases within a week or two. (More coronavirus stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X