Report Shows Pediatric Coronavirus Cases Soaring; How OH Is Doing!

Patch.com, By Chris Mosby, Posted August 18th 2020

A two-week span in July saw nearly 100,000 children contract the coronavirus.

As families and school districts struggle with whether to send children back to the classroom, people are looking to whatever available data they can find to help inform their last-minute decisions.

One of the reports to garner attention this week is one from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. It shows a 40 percent increase in pediatric coronavirus cases nationwide in the last two weeks of July, with nearly 100,000 testing positive in that time.

The latest public health data in Ohio— current as of August 10 — shows more than 7,815 people under 19 having been diagnosed with COVID-19, making up 9.2 percent of the state’s confirmed cases to date.

The rate of pediatric cases in Ohio is at 270.7 per 100,000, well below the national rate of 447 as of July 30.

According to the study, Ohio has the 12th most cumulative cases of COVID-19 among children in the U.S. More than 5,000 COVID-19 cases in the Buckeye State have been confirmed among children.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, 225 Ohio children have been hospitalized because of COVID-19. That represents 2 percent of all COVID-19-related hospitalizations in Ohio.

It’s still not known what sort of long-term complications children can get as a result of COVID-19.

Two Ohioans 19 or younger have died from COVID-19 complications, according to the Ohio Department of Health. There were 86 such deaths across the country in the national report.

Overall, children made up about 9 percent of all cases in the country as of the end of July.