The number and incidence of coronavirus cases in children have increased since the pandemic in the spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took into recently updated guidance, underlining the risk to young people and their families as the new school year begins .
According to the CDC, the incidence of infection increased in children aged 17 and under ‘gradually’ from March to July. While the virus is much more common and severe among adults, the true incidence of infection in American children remains unknown due to a lack of widespread testing, the agency said.
The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday granted authorization for emergency use for a regret-based coronavirus test, developed by researchers at Yale University, which aims to reduce turnaround times in commercial laboratories.
Democrats are attacking President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine the Postal Service as millions of Americans prepare to vote by mail amid the pandemic. ‘What you are witnessing is a President of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, making it harder for people to participate in post-a balloting at a time when people are living their lives on the line set will have to go through to go to a polling station, ”said scenario Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,“ Meet the Press. ”
The United States reports more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths every day. Health officials reported 1,220 new deaths and 57,120 new infections on Saturday – roughly even with the 1,117 deaths and 56,555 cases reported on the same day last week.
New York is making progress against the virus after experiencing the country’s most severe outbreak in the spring. Hospitalizations have reached their lowest point since March 17, officials said. The state reported a record 88,668 tests on Friday, with less than 1 percent returning positive for the eighth consecutive day.
School closures and other public health measures may have contributed to the 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 to adults,” the agency said in its guidance. “Comparing trends in pediatric infections before and after returning to personal school and other activities can provide additional understanding about infections in children.”
Children between the ages of 5 and 17 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 period for incubation of viruses is the same for children as for adults. Children are much less likely to develop serious symptoms, but when they are hospitalized for complications of 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. School has just started in many places, and though concerns about viruses have forced officials to cancel classes or plans to bring students back after they tried to reopen amid the pandemic.
A school district in Nebraska shot classes back on Saturday a week after three staff members tested positive. Schools in Georgia and Tennessee also recently canceled classes after students and staff became ill with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
In Arizona, a school district that voted to resume personal learning despite lacking state health benchmarks, it has reopened indefinitely after teachers threatened not to act, citing fears of the virus spreading.
“We have received an overwhelming response from staff indicating that they do not feel safe going back to classrooms with students,” said District Superintendent Gregory Wyman in a note to parents over the weekend.
The series of false starts does not bode well for districts that are ahead with plans to reopen by individuals proposed by the Trump administration, which has acknowledged that a full return to school is essential for children’s academic and social well-being.
Administration officials have continued to push their case for schools again. Jared Kurshner, the son-in-law of the president and senior adviser to the White House, told CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday that he did not believe the coronavirus posed a serious risk to children and said he and Ivanka Trump had no qualifications. about her children returned.
“We will absolutely send our children back to school,” he said, “and I have no fear of it.”
Kushner defended the administration’s response to the pandemic response, as new daily cases and deaths of coronavirus nationwide have flattened out.
“We know a lot more than we did five months ago,” he said.
