ATL Standard

A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) from the final week of 2021 found that COVID-19 cases in children have reached record highs since the onset of the pandemic.

At the end of the 2021, over 325,000 children tested positive for COVID-19, a 64% jump from the 199,000 new cases reported during the prior week and approximately twice as many cases as the week before that, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. However, the severity of symptoms in children seems to be milder than with adults.

"At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children," the AAP said in a statement. "However, there is an urgent need to collect more data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as the longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects."

Since the start of the pandemic, the AAP found that approximately 7.9 million children in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, which is more than a tenth of the children in the country, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

Over 206 million Americans who are at least 5 years old are up to date with their vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. This accounts for approximately 66.2% of those eligible for vaccination.

While children typically represent only a small percentage of those being hospitalized with COVID-19, many states are reporting an increase in kids requiring emergency medical attention to treat the virus, with New York approaching 200 per week as it closed out the year, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

Child deaths due to COVID-19 have been infrequent throughout the pandemic regardless of virus variants, with the death toll reaching 721 children at 2021's end, the AAP reported.