US reports over 107,000 child Covid cases in a week, up by nearly 72%

More than 107,000 child Covid-19 cases were reported in the US during the past week, up by about 72 per cent from a fortnight ago, a latest report has revealed.

The report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association said this was the sixth consecutive weekly increase in child Covid cases, reports Xinhua news agency.

Almost 13.3 million children have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic more than two years ago, 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 per cent of the country's overall caseload which stood at 83,390,587, the highest in the world.

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 recognise 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.

--IANS

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