Over 10L US kids test Covid positive: Report

New York:  Over one million (10 lakh) children in the US have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) since the onset of the pandemic in the country, according to the latest data.

According to the report, the number of new child Covid-19 cases reported this week, nearly 112,000, is by far the highest weekly increase since the pandemic began.

The data published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association recently said that as of November 12, the total number of child Covid-19 cases reported were 1,039,464, and it was about 11.5 per cent of all cases.

Although it had appeared that severe illness due to Covid-19 is rare among children, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts 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 report said.

“Overall rate is 1,381 cases per 100,000 children in the population,” AAP said in a statement.

The age distribution of reported Covid-19 cases was provided on the health department websites of 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

As of Tuesday morning, total coronavirus cases and the death toll across the globe stood at 5,48,26,773 and 13,25,752 respectively, Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) said in its latest update.

The US is the worst-hit country with 1,11,97,791 cases and 2,47,142 COVID-19 deaths, according to the CSSE. India comes in second place in terms of number of cases although its daily surge has dipped in November.

(IANS)