Reports examine COVID-19 rates, hospitalizations among children

More than 380,000 U.S. children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, which represents 9.1% of cases in states reporting age, according to an analysis released yesterday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association.

The finding is based on data provided Aug. 6 by 49 states, as well as New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Only 20 states and New York City provided COVID-19 hospitalization data by age, which indicated between 0.3% and 8.9% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday released a report on pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization data from 14 states between March 1 and July 25.

“Although the cumulative rate of pediatric COVID-19-associated hospitalization remains low (8.0 per 100,000 population) compared with that among adults (164.5), weekly rates increased during the surveillance period, and one in three hospitalized children were admitted to the [intensive care unit], similar to the proportion among adults,” the authors said.