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THURSDAY, Oct. 1, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Pediatric COVID-19 cases increased considerably from April to September in the United States, according to a study published online Sept. 29 in Pediatrics<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Blake Sisk, Ph.D., from the American Academy of Pediatrics in Itasca, Illinois, and colleagues describe pediatric COVID-19 infection in the United States using data drawn from publicly available COVID-19 information posted on health department websites. Information was collected from April 16 to Sept. 10, 2020.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that as of Sept. 10, there were 549,432 cumulative child COVID-19 cases (729 per 100,000 children). Substantial variation was seen in case growth per region, with a preponderance of cases in the Northeast in April; cases surging in the South and West in June; and increases in the Midwest in mid-July. The proportion of COVID-19 cases that were pediatric increased considerably over time. Currently, children represent 10 percent of the cumulative number of reported cases; however, the number changed over time. In April, less than 3 percent of reported cases were pediatric, while children represented 12 to 15.9 percent of new weekly reported cases in the last eight weeks. Hospitalization and death due to COVID-19 were uncommon in children, with children representing 1.7 percent of total hospitalizations on Sept. 10 and 0.07 percent of total deaths; across the study period, these rates remained stable. <\/p>\n
“We will continue to closely monitor children’s cases, with hopes of seeing the upward trend turn around,” Sally Goza, M.D., president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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