Over 2.9 mln child COVID-19 cases reported in U.S. in past 4 weeks

A student of Montrara Ave. Elementary School has a COVID-19 test in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Xinhua)

Almost 4.5 million child cases were reported in the United States since the beginning of January.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- More than 2.9 million child COVID-19 cases have been added in the United States in the past 4 weeks, and over 12.3 million children in the country have been infected since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

COVID-19 cases among children have spiked dramatically across the United States during the Omicron variant surge.

Almost 4.5 million child cases were reported since the beginning of January. For the week ending Feb. 10, nearly 300,000 additional child COVID-19 cases were reported, according to the report published late Monday.

This marks the 27th week in a row child COVID-19 cases in the United States are above 100,000. Since the first week of September, there have been nearly 7.3 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.

"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. 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," said the report.