CDC: Infections are rising in children
The number and rate of coronavirus cases in children have risen since the pandemic took hold in the spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in recently updated guidance, underscoring the risk for young people and their families as the new school year begins.
According to the CDC, the infection rate in children 17 and under increased “steadily” from March to July. While the virus is far more prevalent and severe among adults, the true incidence of infection in American children remains unknown because of a lack of widespread testing, the agency said.
The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization
Saturday for a saliva-based coronavirus test, developed by Yale University researchers, that aims to reduce turnaround times in commercial laboratories.
School closures and other public health measures may have contributed to initially low rates of coronavirus infections in children early in the pandemic, according to the CDC.
“This may explain the low incidence in children compared with adults,” the agency said in its guidance. “Comparing trends in pediatric infections before and after the return to in-person school and other activities may provide additional understanding about infections in children.”
Children between 5 and 17 years old also test positive for the coronavirus at higher rates than any other age group, according to CDC data, with positivity rates exceeding 10 percent in public and private lab tests.
The virus incubation period is the same for children as it is for adults. Children are far less likely to develop severe symptoms, but when they are hospitalized for complications from the virus, about a third are sent to the intensive care unit, the same rate as adults, according to the CDC.
The new academic year could bring new challenges.
In Mississippi, where most children are returning to school for in-person learning, more than 100 students and staff have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days and hundreds more have been forced to quarantine. Nearly half the state’s schools have reported cases, the Clarion-Leger recently reported. The state also has the highest daily reported deaths in the country, according to tracking by The Washington Post.
Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said Sunday that the virus spread was not pervasive enough in Mississippi schools to justify any shutdowns. He said the state had plans in place to take action if infections became more widespread, but dismissed concerns about school outbreaks, claiming, without citing specific evidence, that most infected children had contracted the virus from elsewhere in the community.
“Keep this in perspective. We have 300,000 kids in classrooms. We’ve had approximately 100 cases that have been confirmed positive,” he told CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”