Coronavirus Disease 2019

U.S. COVID-19 Child Cases Jump 90 Percent in Four Weeks

American Academy of Pediatrics report shows COVID-19 increase in U.S. children.

Posted August 13, 2020

Source: klimkin/Pixabay

The new school year is approaching, and the pandemic has raised many questions on whether to reopen schools on-site, conduct classes virtually online, or adopt a hybrid approach in many schools and universities across the United States. What risk does the COVID-19 disease pose to children? And how does this risk compare to child mortality due to the seasonal flu?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was founded in 1930 to address children’s health needs, and today has 67,000 member pediatricians. A new report by AAP and the Children’s Hospital Association highlights a 90 percent increase in U.S. child cases of COVID-19. The number of cases rose from 200,184 to 380,174 during the period of July 9-Aug. 6. The estimated overall rate of U.S. child COVID-19 cases is roughly 501 cases per 100,000 children in the population.

The areas in the U.S. with the highest number of cumulative COVID-19 cases in children, according to the report, are California (48,524), Florida (28,281), Arizona (22,180), Alabama (21,704), Tennessee (18,522), Illinois (17,859), and Georgia (16,427).

There are 19 areas with the cumulative number ranging between 5,000 and 15,000 child COVID-19 cases. These are North Carolina (14,450), South Carolina (14,129), Virginia (10,850), Louisiana (10,668), Maryland (8,980), Ohio (8,572), Wisconsin (8,413), Pennsylvania (8,379), Minnesota (8,072), Washington (7,444), Massachusetts (7,317), Michigan (7,260), Indiana (6,648), Mississippi (6,358), Missouri (6,284), Arkansas (5,883), Nevada (5,691), and New Jersey (5,224). In New York City alone there have been 6,744 child cases of COVID-19. In the report, the number of children cases were reported only for New York City (NYC) versus the entire state because only NYC reported the age distribution of cases, so the actual total number for the state of New York may be higher.

The states with a cumulative number of COVID-19 child cases between 1,000 and 5,000 include Colorado (4,962), Oklahoma (4,493), Kentucky (3,900), Nebraska (3,381), New Mexico (3,321), Iowa (3,267), Utah (3,091), Oregon (2,887), Idaho (2,006), South Dakota (1,173), and Rhode Island (1,639). For Texas, the state reported age for only 8 percent of total confirmed cases, so the number of cumulative child cases may be higher than 2,398.

The locations with the fewest number of COVID-19 child cases in the U.S. and territories are Guam (39), Vermont (158), Maine (398), Hawaii (301), Wyoming (400), New Hampshire (473), Montana (530), West Virginia (984), Puerto Rico (674), District of Columbia (864), and Alaska (522).

In the United States, the breakdown of the cumulative number of children who have died due to COVID-19 during May 21-Aug. 6 is: Alabama (6), Arizona (11), California (1), Colorado (3), Connecticut (2), Florida (3), Georgia (1), Illinois (5), Indiana (3), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (4), Maryland (1), Minnesota (1), Missouri (2), Nebraska (1), Nevada (3), New Jersey (2), North Carolina (1), New York City (13), Ohio (2), Oklahoma (1), Rhode Island (1), South Carolina (4), Tennessee (4), Texas (13), and Washington (2).

How does the number of child deaths from COVID-19 compare to the seasonal flu? The number of influenza-associated pediatric deaths due to the seasonal flu was 187 in 2019-2020, 144 in 2018-2019, 188 in 2017-2018, and 110 in 2016-2017 according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The current number of child deaths due to U.S. COVID-19 during the reporting period of May 21-Aug. 6 is over 80 percent of the number of children who died from seasonal flu in the entire 2016-2017 season, and over 48 percent of the 187 children who died from seasonal flu in the current 2019-2020 season.

“At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children,” wrote the AAP and Children's Hospital Association report authors. “However, states should continue to provide detailed reports on COVID-19 cases, testing, hospitalizations, and mortality by age so that the effects of COVID-19 on children’s health can continue to be documented and monitored.”