By Jen Christensen and Theresa Waldrop, CNN

While the number of children testing positive for Covid-19 declined slightly, children represented a higher percentage of total new Covid-19 cases in the United States in the most recent week compared to the week previous, accounting for almost 27% of all reported cases nationwide. , the American Academy of Pediatrics reported on Monday.

It comes as fewer new cases have been reported overall in the country. The number of new cases of Covid-19 in children fell 8.5% to 206,864 in the week ended September 23, from 225,978 in the previous seven days.

Yet this is the fifth week in a row that has added more than 200,000 new cases.

“The number of new cases of COVID in children remains exceptionally high,” said the report of the association of pediatricians.

Cases in children had skyrocketed since the more contagious variant of the Delta coronavirus became the dominant strain in the United States in July. The weekly case count reported by the AAP on Monday is an 188% increase in cases in children since the week of July 22-29, when the group counted 71,726 cases.

Those under 12 have not been eligible for the vaccination, but that is expected to change as early as next month.

Pfizer chief executive officer Albert Bourla told ABC News on Sunday it was “a matter of days, not weeks” until the company submits data from its trials on children aged 5. at age 11 with the United States Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer announced last Monday that clinical trials of its two-dose vaccine have shown it to be safe and has generated a strong antibody response in this age group.

The data will be forwarded to the FDA Vaccines Committee for FDA approval, and then to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that the FDA will work quickly to make a decision on the vaccine for children. He also told MSNBC last week that there was “a good chance” the photo would be available by the end of October.

Children are much less likely than adults to suffer from serious illness or die from Covid-19, although some children can develop long-term symptoms, regardless of the severity of the initial symptoms.

Among states reporting hospitalizations by age, children made up between 1.6% and 4.1% of patients hospitalized for Covid-19 in this week’s AAP report.

Among states that report deaths by age, children made up no more than 0.27% of deaths. Seven states reported no pediatric deaths.

On Sunday, the CDC reported that 579 children under the age of 18 had died from Covid-19 in the United States.

As of September 23, more than 5.7 million children have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the AAP.

The-CNN-Wire
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