Washington: As COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise nationwide, some states are halting phased reopening plans or imposing new coronavirus-related restrictions.
Several are putting limits on social gatherings, adding states to travel quarantine lists, mandating face masks and encouraging residents to stay home, as many did in the spring. Others are restricting business hours of operation and limiting restaurant capacity.
Thirty-six states – plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico – now require people to wear face coverings in public statewide, according to a list maintained by AARP. Iowa, Utah and North Dakota joined the list in recent days, and Maine, Ohio and West Virginia strengthened their mandates last week.
Meanwhile, over one million children in the US have been diagnosed with the Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic in the country, according to the latest data.
According to the report, the number of new child Covid-19 cases reported last week, nearly 112,000, is by far the highest weekly increase since the pandemic began.
The data published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association recently said that as of November 12, the total number of child Covid-19 cases reported were 1,039,464, and it was about 11.5 per cent of all cases.
Although it had appeared that severe illness due to Covid-19 is rare among children, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts 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, the report said.
“Overall rate is 1,381 cases per 100,000 children in the population,” AAP said in a statement.
The age distribution of reported Covid-19 cases was provided on the health department websites of 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
The US is the worst-hit country with over 11 million cases and 2,47,142 COVID-19 deaths, according to the CSSE.
