US reports weekly count of 100,000 child COVID-19 cases

LOS ANGELES - More than 107,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States during the past week, up by about 72 percent from two weeks ago, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

It marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase in child COVID-19 cases in the United States, said the report published on Monday.

Almost 13.3 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic in the country with over 316,000 of them detected in the past four weeks, according to the report.

Nearly 5.4 million child COVID-19 cases have been reported nationwide so far in 2022.

Children represent 19 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, the report showed.

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," it said.