Covid-19 Child Cases Rise

As the school year begins and schools across the nation are contemplating the reopening of schools, new data on the impact of Covid-19 on children has been released.

False Impressions

Many people are under the impression that the impact of Covid-19 on children is low and serious health issues are unlikely to occur. This initial impression may be misleading as more research released by the CDC has shown that 1 in 3 children who are hospitalized are moved to intensive care which is the same rate for adults. This false impression that people, including parents, have may influence them into thinking that their children are completely safe from the virus but experts have commented that there is still a lot of unknown when it comes to children and the virus.

New Findings

New data and research has been released as recently as early this month which suggests that there is still a lot about covid-19 that we aren’t aware of.

A report from the CDC from early this month claims that the hospitalization rate of children has increased and experts speculate that those rates may rise more as schools start to reopen in many states.

If we were to measure from the start of the pandemic until now, the total number of children who tested positive for covid-19 is 440,000, and according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital the rate of children cases have increased 21% recently so that number may see a spike in the next few months.

Final Word

All of this to say that severe illness in children is still rare but it is always safe to remind ourselves that constant research is being done on covid-19 and the long term effects of the virus may still be unknown.

Sources- Maxouris, Christina. “Covid-19 Child Cases in the Us Have Increased since Early August, New Data Shows.” CNN, 26 Aug. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/08/26/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html. Accessed 30 Aug. 2020.

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