Student Well-Being

Children Account for More New COVID-19 Cases as the Pandemic Rolls On

By Sarah D. Sparks — December 01, 2020 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Children are less likely to catch the coronavirus than adults and tend to have less severe symptoms if they do get infected. But as more people get tested and researchers learn more about COVID-19, children’s vulnerability to the virus is becoming more apparent.

A study published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics finds there have been more than a half million children diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Sept. 10, a rate of 729 cases per 100,000 children. Researchers from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association analyzed coronavirus case data from April to September from 49 state health departments as well as those of New York City, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam. (New York State does not report coronavirus cases by age.)

Children under 18 make up nearly 23 percent of people in the United States, but researchers found they’ve so far made up only 10 percent of the more than 6.3 million cumulative U.S. cases of coronavirus, as the chart below shows.

The study did not look at whether children transmit the virus more easily than adults do, but the findings do suggest that the virus may be more common among children than school leaders expect.

While more children are being identified with the virus, they have not become more likely to face severe symptoms from the disease. As of Sept. 10, less than 2 percent of all children who had ever had COVID-19 needed to be hospitalized, and less than .01 percent died. Children have represented .07 percent of all U.S. deaths from the pandemic, and those rates have not changed as the pandemic has continued.

Big holes remain in the data. It’s still difficult to tell exactly how many children have had the virus for a variety of reasons. States count children differently, with some including those only up to age 14, while others go up to age 20. In many states still short on coronavirus tests, children are unlikely to be tested unless they show major symptoms of the disease, such as a high fever coupled with severe coughing or breathing problems. And other studies have found children, particularly those under 10, are significantly less likely to even spike a fever.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Inside School Research blog.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being Teen Girls Are Being Victimized by AI-Generated Nude Images
AI-generated deepfake nude images of teens were circulated at a schools in New Jersey and Washington.
5 min read
Dorota Mani sits for an interview in her office in Jersey City, N.J., on Nov. 8, 2023. Mani is the parent of a 14-year-old New Jersey student victimized by an AI-generated deepfake image.
Dorota Mani sits for an interview in her office in Jersey City, N.J., on Nov. 8, 2023. Mani is the parent of a 14-year-old New Jersey student victimized by an AI-generated deepfake image.
Peter K. Afriyie/AP
Student Well-Being How Districts Can Keep After-School and Summer Learning Alive After ESSER Dries Up
Roughly 8 in 10 school districts spent some of their federal COVID relief funds on after-school or summer learning.
4 min read
Multi-ethnic preschool boys playing with blocks.
E+ / Getty
Student Well-Being Kids Are Getting Priced Out of Youth Sports. How Schools Can Help
The rising costs of participating in organized youth sports is making these activities unaffordable for many families.
3 min read
Graham Bacigalupi, of Team Louisiana, watches from the dugout during the DYB, formerly Dixie Youth Baseball, Little League tournament in Ruston, La., on Aug. 8, 2023.
Graham Bacigalupi, of Team Louisiana, watches from the dugout during a Little League tournament in Ruston, La., on Aug. 8, 2023.
Gerald Herbert/AP
Student Well-Being All Public Schools Can Now Get Free COVID-19 Tests. Here's How
The Education Department is encouraging schools to share the COVID-19 tests with staff, families, and the broader community.
2 min read
COVID-19 antigen home tests indicating a positive result are photographed in New York on April 5, 2023.
COVID-19 antigen home tests indicating a positive result are photographed in New York on April 5, 2023.
Patrick Sison/AP