U.S. reports over 100,000 child COVID-19 cases in past 4 weeks

Elementary students walk home from school in Plano, Texas, the United States, on Aug. 31, 2022. (Photo by Xin Jin/Xinhua)

Since the onset of the pandemic, almost 15.5 million children in the country are reported to have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the report.

LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Over 106,000 child COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States in the past four weeks, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

Since the onset of the pandemic, almost 15.5 million children in the country are reported to have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the report.

Nearly 19,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported in the latest week ending March 2, and over the past five months, weekly reported child cases have plateaued at an average of about 32,000 cases, said the report.

Reported cases are likely a "substantial undercount" of COVID-19 cases among children, according to 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.