Story at a glance
- About 94,000 children were diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.
- From July 22 to July 29, almost 72,000 new cases were reported, nearly twice as many as in the previous week.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics has called on the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track vaccine approval for children under 12.
Coronavirus cases in children have spiked over the past few weeks as the highly transmissible delta variant spreads among the unvaccinated in the U.S., prompting health experts to urge the federal government to quickly expand authorization of vaccines to younger age groups.
A data analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) found that children made up about 15 percent of all newly reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. for the week ending on Aug. 5. Since the beginning of the pandemic, children represented just over 14 percent of total cumulated cases.
Cases have been rising dramatically since July when the delta variant became the dominant strain in the U.S.
About 94,000 children were diagnosed with COVID-19 last week. From July 22 to July 29, almost 72,000 new cases were reported, nearly twice as many as in the previous week, according to AAP.
While pediatric cases are on the rise, the data indicates hospitalization and death is still uncommon in children. The AAP analysis found less than 2 percent of child cases resulted in hospitalization and up to 0.03 percent of such cases resulted in death.
It’s still unclear whether the delta variant results in more severe disease in children, although some local hospitals in areas with lagging vaccination rates have reported a growing number of pediatric hospital admissions due to COVID-19.
In response to the surge, the head of the AAP called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fast-track vaccine authorization for those under the age of 12.
“Pediatricians and the families they care for have been anxiously awaiting a vaccine that can be used in children 11 years of age and younger, and especially so now given the rise of the hyper infectious Delta variant. The Delta variant is surging at extremely alarming rates in every region of America,” Lee Savio Beers, AAP president, said in a letter to the FDA.
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“Simply stated, the Delta variant has created a new and pressing risk to children and adolescents across this country, as it has for unvaccinated adults,” Beers said.
Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are all conducting pediatric trials of a COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer expects trial data on children ages 5 through 11 by next month, and Moderna is likely to have such data by fall or early winter.
While the FDA has asked for up to six months of follow-up safety data from the trials, Beers said the timeline should be reduced.
“Based on scientific data currently available on COVID-19 vaccines, as well as on 70 years of vaccinology knowledge in the pediatric population, the Academy believes that clinical trials in these children can be safely conducted with a 2-month safety follow-up for participants,” Beers said.
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Published on Aug 11,2021