Coronavirus In CT Children: New Data On Cases, Deaths Released
CONNECTICUT — Just as school districts across the state are finalizing their reopening plans, there comes a new report that children may not be as coronavirus-resistant as researchers thought earlier on.
Nearly 100,000 children across the United States tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks of July alone, according to a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.
From July 16-30, there were 97,078 new child cases of COVID-19 reported, raising the total to 338,982 from 241,904. That's a 40 percent increase.
Most of the uptick occurred in the South and West, accounting for 70 percent of the new cases. A big unknown is the number of children infected but not tested and confirmed.
If there's any good news, it's that children in the Northeast, and Connecticut in particular, had the lowest percentage increase of child infections.
Fewer than 200 children from across New England were hospitalized with coronavirus-related illnesses in the latter part of July. Although two Connecticut children died from the disease, kids represented only 5 percent of total COVID-19 cases in the state.
A total of 2,497 child cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Connecticut since the start of the pandemic, out of the child population of 735,193. That's 339.6 cases per 100,000 kids.
Neighboring Massachusetts and Rhode Island fared less well, with 5.9 percent and 9 percent, respectively, of the cases in those states being children.
The bloat of children's cases runs in concert with a general uptick in cases in those states. Rhode Island reported 127 new cases Friday. Massachusetts recently postponed its next reopening phase and introduced stricter limits on social gatherings. Massachusetts also reported 320 new cases and 18 deaths Friday.
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This article originally appeared on the Across Connecticut Patch
