U.S. reports nearly 48,000 weekly child COVID-19 cases

People walk past Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago in Chicago, the United States, on Dec. 12, 2022. (Photo by Joel Lerner/Xinhua)

Almost 15.2 million children in the country have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic.

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 48,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States in the week ending Dec. 22, the third consecutive weekly rise in child cases, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

Almost 15.2 million children in the country have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic.

About 165,000 of these cases have been added in the past four weeks, and the reported cases are likely a "substantial undercount" of COVID-19 cases among children, said the report.

There is a 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, said the AAP.