US reports 50pc increase of weekly child Covid cases

Washington: About 41,000 child Covid-19 cases were reported in the US in the week ending December 8, an increase of about 50 per cent over the weekly average in the previous eight weeks, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

Almost 15.1 million children in the country have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.

About 127,000 of these cases have been added in the past four weeks, according to the report. Reported cases are likely a "substantial undercount" of Covid-19 cases among children, said the report. There is a 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 report.

It is important to recognize there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children's health, but importantly there is the need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth, said the AAP.