A report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) revealed that more children contracted the virus in the last two weeks of July. About 100,000 kids in the US have tested positive with the coronavirus based on their report. Still, it suggests that schools should reopen.
Since the pandemic happened, 338,000 children have tested positive with the deadly disease. Two weeks before school starts, there is a 25 percent increase in those numbers. The AAP noted that it is not due to the rise in the number of testing.
Although more kids were tested between late July than in June and early July, only a small difference is seen. Some noted that the virus has mutated, but the newest strain is either neutral or harmful to the main virus.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics still recommends that schools reopen even though 100,000 kids tested positive with the coronavirus in the last two weeks.
An exponential increase in numbers
What AAP found to be the cause is that the increase in total case numbers is exponential. Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Ashish Jha, told CNN that we are generating 50,000 to 70,000 cases per day. He noted that it is all wholly preventable. Since more adults get the virus, so do children.
Across the country, the spike in children is not equal. Both the South and West have reported many cases in children since the pandemic started. The states with the most number of cases are in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee in the South, California, and Arizona in the West, and Illinois in the Midwest.
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Kids are less affected.
Although the AAP noticed a spike in kids' COVID cases, they only account for 8.8 percent of all cases. Only 0.6 percent to 8.9 percent of the infected children get a severe illness, based on data from 20 states and New York City.
Only zero to 0.3 percent of the kids who tested positive died based on available data, while 20 states reported that none died within their borders. About 3.6 to 18.4 percent of children who were tested for COVID got a positive result.
Experts recommend that if the overall positivity rate is below five, then schools may reopen.
School reopening recommendations
Experts recommend that if the overall positivity rate is below five, then schools may reopen. On June 25, the AAP widely publicized and well-argued that if possible, all schools should target to get kids back to in-person schools.
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There is no signal from the AAP whether they plan to change their school recommendation after seeing this alarming increase in numbers. Even if schools reopen, the recent spike will not sustain them for being open for long.
