Nearly 280,000 children in US contracted coronavirus since March

Washington [US], September 29 (ANI/Sputnik): Nearly 280,000 children in the United States contracted the novel coronavirus since March, making up less than 5 per cent of the country's cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a study on Monday.
"Since March, 277,285 COVID-19 cases in children have been reported," the CDC said. "Although mortality and hospitalization in school-aged children were low, Hispanic ethnicity, Black race, and underlying conditions were more commonly reported among children who were hospitalized or admitted to an ICU, providing additional evidence that some children might be at increased risk for severe illness associated with COVID-19."
The CDC said the analysis of demographic characteristics, underlying conditions, clinical outcomes and trends in the study could help policy-makers make "decisions about in-person learning and the timing and scaling of community mitigation measures."
However, the CDC said the findings in the study were subject to limitations such as data that might underestimate the actual incidence of disease among school-aged children because testing was frequently prioritized for persons with symptoms and asymptomatic infection in children was common.
Findings on race/ethnicity, symptom status, underlying conditions and outcomes need to be interpreted with caution as these data had high rates of missing or unknown values, the CDC said.
Due to delays in reporting, trend data might also lag actual disease transmission dates, and laboratory data covered in the study might under-represent the volume of laboratory tests reported in some states, the CDC added. (ANI/Sputnik)