States sound the alarm over Covid-19 outbreaks among school-age children

There were more than 1.5 million cases of Covid-19 among children and adolescents reported in the Americas throughout the past year.

In the US, some state officials sound the alarm:

About 60% of outbreaks in Georgia occur in schools

In the past 60 days, about 60 percent of Covid-19’s total in Georgia went to K-12 schools, about a triple, state epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek said during a board meeting. of the Department of Public Health.

“The most significant epidemiological trend we’ve seen, which was very different from previous waves of this pandemic, is the huge impact we’ve seen in school-age children,” he said.

This impact crosses all surveillance indicators, including new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, according to Drenzek.

Georgia currently averages about 7,000 new cases each day, about a tenth since July, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Georgia ranks lower in the United States in vaccination rates, with 43% fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Call for Ohio governor to school districts

This week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association urged school superintendents to demand masks for staff and students.

“If we want our schools to be open, the best way to do that is for people over the age of 12 to be vaccinated,” he said during a virtual meeting with superintendents. “But because children under the age of 12 are still too young to get vaccinated, we need students entering the school to wear a mask until we go through that.”

Just over 54% of state public school students have a mask requirement.

“Reasonable people may disagree, but we can all agree that we need to keep our children in the classroom so they don’t fall behind and so that their parents can go to work and not have time. free to see the kids at home, “DeWine said.

Since Aug. 15, there have been 29,823 children (ages 5 to 17) with confirmed or probable cases of Covid-19 in the state, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Last week, Ohio saw a 44% increase in cases among school-age children, compared to a 17% jump in the rest of the population.

The statement states that school districts where masks are optional have experienced a 54% increase on weekdays, compared to a 34% increase in districts with mask requirements.

“This is a perfect storm and affects children as before,” Nick Lashutka, president and CEO of the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, said in the statement.

This year, ten times as many cases in Pennsylvania schoolchildren

Pennsylvania has 10 times more cases of Covid-19 in school-age children than at this time last year, when the state was doing remote learning, according to acting Health Secretary Alison Beam.

Between Sept. 4 and 10 last year, there were 574 cases of Covid-19 in children ages 5 to 18 in Pennsylvania, according to the Department of Health.

During the same time period of 2021, there were 5,371 cases in the same age group.

Status of a vaccine for children

“If you look at the studies we do at the (National Institutes of Health) in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, there will be enough data to apply for an emergency use authorization from Pfizer, a little later for Modern, ”Fauci told CNN.

“I think both of them, with Pfizer first, will probably be able to have a situation where we can vaccinate children,” he added. “If the FDA judges the data enough enough, we could do it in the fall.”

School reopenings without proper masking have likely contributed to the increase in cases among children, according to Fauci.

“When you get a highly transmissible virus to the community, you will see that there are many more children infected,” he said.

But mask mandates in schools remain controversial.

In New York, two Long Island public school districts are suing the governor and state health commissioner for a statewide school mask warrant imposed before the school year.