US: Over 2.9 million child COVID-19 cases reported in four weeks 

Washington DC: More than 2.9 million child COVID-19 cases have been added in the United States (US) in the past 4 weeks, according to the latest report of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

This marks the 27th week in a row child COVID-19 cases in the United States are above 100,000.

As of January 13, a total of 9,452,491 child COVID-19 cases had been reported across the country, and children represented 17.8% of all confirmed cases.  

According to a report, children accounted for 1.7% to 4.4% of total reported hospitalizations, and 0 to 0.26% of all coronavirus deaths. 

"There is an urgent 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 we need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth," the report added.

In September, there have been nearly 7.3 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.  

Since the start of pandemic, 12.3 million children have been infected in the US. Coronavirus cases among children have spiked dramatically across the country during the Omicron variant surge. 

The overall rate was 12,559 cases per 100,000 children in the population.

According to a study published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the peak rate of pediatric hospitalizations during the recent omicron surge was four times higher than the peak seen during delta’s wave.