The number of children and teens suffering from the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 exceeded 250,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic in the week through Sept. 2, a worrying trend coming just as they return to school in person.
Data published by the American Academy of Pediatrics showed the number of child cases has been climbing fast through the summer months after declining at the start of the season, with more than 750,000 cases being added between Aug. 5 and Sept. 2. Children accounted for 26.8% of reported cases in the latest week.
While children are less prone to severe cases of COVID, nearly 2,400 were in hospitals across the U.S. in the week through Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. Experts are concerned about the political fighting over face masks and vaccine mandates, which have persisted in some states, even though children below the age of 12 are still not eligible for vaccination. ...
The U.S. is averaging more than 152,000 new cases a day and more than 1,500 fatalities, numbers last seen in March, according to a New York Times tracker.
Daily death numbers have climbed more than fivefold since the start of August, as outbreaks in the Midwest, Northeast and mid-Atlantic offset declines in states in the Deep South, that were recent hot spots....
