COVID-19 cases in children are “steadily increasing” as the CDC has warned that young people can spread the killer bug. The number and rate of cases in children across the United States have been “steadily increasing from March to July,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed in its updated guidelines on Friday. The true […]
COVID-19 cases in children are “steadily increasing” as the CDC has warned that young people can spread the killer bug.
The number and rate of cases in children across the United States have been “steadily increasing from March to July,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed in its updated guidelines on Friday.
The true frequency of COVID-19 in children remains unknown as there is a lack of widespread testing.
However, experts have found that children (up until 17 years old) make up 7.3 percent of all cases in the US – and children comprise 22 percent of the country’s population.
“Recent evidence suggests that children likely have the same or higher viral loads in their nasopharynx compared with adults and that children can spread the virus effectively in households and camp settings,” the CDC further explains.
According to the CDC, the SARS-CoV-2 incubation period seems to be almost identical in children as it is in adults.
Symptoms could start showing within two and 14 days of getting coronavirus.
The data states that children could experience the following signs or symptoms if they’ve contracted COVID-19:
Fever, fatigue, headache, myalgia, cough, nasal congestion or rhinorrhea, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.
Other possible side effects could be: Abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, and poor appetite or poor feeding.
The rates of hospitalization in children were found to be drastically lower than adults with coronavirus.
The findings suggest “that children may have less severe illness from COVID-19 compared to adults.”
“Due to community mitigation measures and school closures, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to and among children may have been reduced in the United States during the pandemic in the spring and early summer of 2020,” the CDC added.
“This may explain the low incidence in children compared with adults.”
The news comes a week after Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that schools in New York State will reopen this September.
In-person classes will be allowed to resume if the COVID-19 transmission rate in the state, one of the lowest in the US, remains below five percent, he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Anthony Fauci has again broken with President Donald Trump by saying there should be a “universal wearing of masks” in schools.
And an 11-year-old girl who had coronavirus died of organ failure after contracting a rare Kawasaki-like inflammatory syndrome.
The girl had no underlying health conditions but passed away after previously testing positive for Covid-19.
