Sun-CDC: The number of infections in children is increasing

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in a recent guidance that the number and incidence of coronaviruses in children had increased since the beginning of the pandemic, highlighting the risks to young people and their families beginning a new semester.

According to the CDC, the prevalence of infection in children under the age of 17 “steadily” increased from March to July. Although the virus is much more prevalent and severe among adults, it has not been extensively tested, so the true rate of infection in American children remains unknown.

Children in the United States were vulnerable when the United States averaged more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths per day for 21 consecutive days. Civil servants reported 1,220 new deaths and 57,120 new infections on Saturday, but public health experts remained undertested and some states experienced technical problems collecting data. I emphasized that I did.

To make testing faster and cheaper, the Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency permit for saliva-based coronavirus testing on Saturday, developed by researchers at Yale University.

This test, called SalivaDirect, does not require swabs or special collection equipment. Samples can be collected in sterile containers, according to the FDA. It also does not require a separate step for extracting nucleic acids. This is a time-consuming and often missing component-dependent process.

Efficient and reliable testing is essential this fall as the new school year increases the urgency of questions about the spread of the virus in children.

New York has made progress against the virus after experiencing the country’s most serious outbreaks in the spring. Hospitalization has reached its lowest point since March 17, officials said. The state recorded 88,668 tests on Friday, with less than 1% being positive for eight consecutive days.

According to the CDC, school closures and other public health measures may have reduced coronavirus prevalence in children early in the pandemic.

“This may explain the lower incidence of children compared to adults,” officials said in that guidance. “By comparing trends in childhood infections and other activities before and after returning to face-to-face school, you can gain a better understanding of childhood infections.”

CDC data show that children aged 5 to 17 are more positive for coronaviruses than any other age group, with public and private lab tests showing a positive rate of >10%. I will.

The incubation period of the virus is the same as in adults. Children are much less likely to develop serious symptoms, according to the CDC, but when hospitalized for viral complications, about one-third of adults are sent to the intensive care unit at the same rate as adults. It is possible.

The new school year may pose new challenges, especially in states such as Hawaii, Illinois, and South Dakota, where the number of daily infections has increased significantly in recent weeks. As politicians, district managers and parents continue to discuss the wisdom of resuming face-to-face learning, schools that have already begun provide case data on reinstatement challenges.

In Mississippi, most children return to school for face-to-face learning, but more than 100 students and staff recently tested positive for coronavirus, and hundreds more have been quarantined. Clarion Ledger recently reported that nearly half of state schools reported cases. According to the Washington Post tracking, the state also has the highest daily reported deaths in the country.

Republican Governor Tate Leaves said on Sunday he justified the closure because the spread of the virus had not penetrated Mississippi schools. He also plans to take action by the state government on what to do if the infectious disease becomes more widespread, but without citing specific evidence, most infected children can be found elsewhere in the community. Denying concerns about the outbreak of school, alleging it had the virus.

“Take a look at this. There are 300,000 children in the classroom. There are about 100 positive cases,” he told CBS News “Face the Nation.”

“The point is, whether your child is out of school or not, you are completely immune to getting the virus,” he said. “And we need to take steps to ensure that those children have the opportunity to learn.”

In other places where the school year begins, viral concerns have forced authorities to cancel classes or cancel plans to put students back after attempting to resume during a pandemic.

Saturday’s Nebraska school district pushed classes back a week after three staff members tested positive. Georgia, Indiana, and Tennessee schools also recently canceled face-to-face learning after their students and employees became ill with COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus.

In Arizona, a school district that voted to resume face-to-face learning despite a lack of state health benchmarks did not resume after threatening to prevent teachers from appearing due to concerns over the spread of the virus. Paused by the deadline.

“We received an overwhelming response from the staff that they didn’t feel safe returning to the classroom with their students,” district superintendent Gregory Wyman said in a note to his parents over the weekend.

The series of false starts is not a good sign for the districts that are pushing the Trump administration’s proposed two-way resumption plan.

White House officials continued to insist on their case to reopen school. Jared Kushner, president’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, told The Face of Nation on Sunday. school.

“We will definitely send our children back to school, and I’m not afraid to do so.”

Former FDA member Scott Gottlieb warned against relying on Kushner’s novel coronavirus deaths in children compared to the number of deaths from the flu each year. In his own interview on “Face the Nation,” Gottlieb said the new virus was not as prevalent as children.

He said the approximately 330,000 children diagnosed with coronaviruses were probably a significant underage, and about 3 million were likely infected. Of those, Gottlieb said about 90 people had died. By comparison, he said the flu causes about 11 million symptomatic illnesses each year, killing about 400 people.

“There are many things we don’t understand about children’s covid,” Gottlieb said. “I think we need to be careful about the deaths and illnesses of influenza when compared to influenza and when compared to COVID.”