More than 1 million children diagnosed with COVID-19 in U.S.

COVID-19 isn’t going away. Not by Thanksgiving, and not by Christmas. And the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is calling on elected officials to take action.

Last week more than 111,946 new COVID-19 cases were seen in children in the United States. According to the AAP the case numbers last week were “substantially larger than any previous week in the pandemic” and more than 1 million children have now been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

The good news is, vaccines are on the way, and a new antibody study shows elementary-aged kids may be less likely to spread the virus. The bad news is that adult behavior continues to see the virus spread and that a million of those positive cases were in kids. The AAP is pretty clear here: If we want to keep schools open and kids COVID-free, adults have to do their part.

As of Nov 12, a total of 1,039,464 children have tested positive for #COVID19. Pediatricians are calling on elected… https://t.co/gbPPdUXQZl

— American Academy of Pediatrics (@AmerAcadPeds)
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“As a pediatrician who has practiced medicine for over three decades, I find this number staggering and tragic. We haven’t seen a virus flash through our communities in this way since before we had vaccines for measles and polio,” said AAP President Sally Goza, MD, FAAP. “And while we wait for a vaccine to be tested and licensed to protect children from the virus that causes COVID-19, we must do more now to protect everyone in our communities. This is even more important as we approach winter, when people will naturally spend more time indoors where it is easier for the virus to be transmitted.”

The AAP believes that 1 million kids is likely not even accurate because kids’ symptoms are often more mild than adults so they’re less likely to get tested for COVID-19.