New data on the number of children in America who have contracted the coronavirus shows kids now make up 11 percent of the total number of positive cases.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, between October 8 and 22, more than 94,500 children tested positive for the coronavirus in states that report cases by age. This is a 14 percent increase over two weeks.
The AAP says this brings the total number of children in American who have tested positive to more than 792,000, which is 11 percent of the more than 7.2 million people in this country who have tested positive since the pandemic began.
In the previous period in late September, children cases made up 10.7 percent of total coronavirus cases in America.
The states with a high percent increase in coronavirus cases among children are the same that are seeing spikes in total coronavirus cases; including Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Wisconsin.
The definition of “child” ranges from 0-14 years old in some states, to 0-20 years old in others, so the AAP’s data represents a range of ages.
States are still reporting low to very low numbers of child hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus.
In the 24 states reporting this information, between .6-and-6.9 percent of all positive coronavirus cases in children result in a hospitalization.
Among the 42 states reporting deaths by age, between 0-and-.15 percent of all child coronavirus cases result in death.
The AAP represents pediatric doctors around the country, and has been releasing regular updates on how many positive cases of coronavirus there are among children.
