欧美文化:Nearly 270,000 child COVID-19 cases reported in U.S. in past month

LOS ANGELES, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 270,000 child COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States in the past four weeks, according to the report published Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

About 12.8 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic in the country. Children represented 19 percent of all confirmed cases, according to the report.

A total of 31,991 child COVID-19 cases were reported the past week ending March 17. Nearly 270,000 child cases have been added in the past 4 weeks. Since the first week of September, there have been over 7.7 million additional child cases, according to the report.

There is an urgent need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects, said the AAP.

"It is important to recognize there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children's health, but importantly we need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth," said the AAP.