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The rate of covid-19 rises among adolescents aged 16 and 17

2021-08-26T17:31:47.668Z


Coronavirus infections continue to rise among US children, with teens ages 16 and 17 facing the highest rate.


About 70% of young people would return to school without being vaccinated 3:04

(CNN) -

Coronavirus infections continue to rise among children in the United States.

And older teens, ages 16 and 17, face the highest weekly case rate, according to a new CNN analysis of the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are several factors that help explain why teens have higher rates of COVID-19 cases: The delta variant is highly communicable and is more likely to interact with others, especially during the summer, Dr. Georges Benjamin told CNN. , executive director of the American Public Health Association this Wednesday.

Among eligible groups, adolescents are also the least likely to be vaccinated.

"The simple answer is: you have a virus that is highly infectious. It will spread to the most vulnerable people. And those will be the people least likely to be vaccinated," Benjamin said.

"And it remains true that younger people are less likely to be vaccinated."

Early in the pandemic, the original strain of the coronavirus infected older adults and essential workers at high rates, Benjamin said.

But now, most of the people in those groups are fully vaccinated.

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"As this happens, the way someone is exposed changes. Everyone else is vaccinated, not infected, so now we see, statistically at least, that the people who are getting infected are other people," Benjamin said.

"Add in the fact that we have this new virus. And this new virus is going to do a couple of things. One, it is clearly much more infectious than the other viruses, and it will affect the most vulnerable."

Benjamin said, referring to the delta variant of the coronavirus: "Who are the most vulnerable? It is the people who are not vaccinated and the people who are away from home."

'The sad reality is that we have a solution'

There could be some biological mechanisms behind why older teens appear to have higher COVID-19 case rates than other children.

But that's not very clear, said Dr. Sean O'Leary, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

They ask to protect children from covid-19 in the US 0:48

"My suspicion is that it probably has more to do with behavior than biology. In terms of, what are these kids doing? They can handle themselves, hang out after school, hang out with other kids their age. Probably without the mitigation measures that would be in place at the school, "O'Leary said.

And children in general are now even more vulnerable as they return to school this month.

"The sad reality is that we have a solution that adequately protects adolescents over the age of sixteen. We have the Pfizer vaccine approved for that age group. So we shouldn't see high case rates in that age group if we are successful. in vaccinating late teens who are eligible, "said Lori Tremmel Freeman, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

  • A CDC report shows that 90% of the adverse effects of vaccines in adolescents are not serious

"I am more concerned about what we will see in the next three weeks if the trend continues to the younger ages, under 16. With no vaccine yet for the youngest children, we will see more of what we are beginning to hear now. Schools they have to make decisions about how to stop face-to-face classes for a week or so, ”Freeman said.

"There could be those kinds of temporary measures that allow schools to recover if face-to-face learning begins to affect transmission at younger ages with the reopening of schools."

More children contract covid-19

In the past month, adults ages 18-29 have consistently had the highest weekly rates of covid-19 cases of all.

But as of Saturday, 16- and 17-year-olds took that position with 160.3 weekly COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, according to CDC data.

Of course, as more cases are reported to the CDC, the case rates are likely to increase and the data will change.

By comparison, teens ages 12-15 had a weekly COVID-19 case rate of 152.7.

Children ages 5 to 11 saw a weekly rate of 137. And children under 5 had a rate of 79.4, according to the data.

Family man defends use of masks with passionate 1:25 speech

Among adults, as of Saturday, people ages 18 to 29 saw a weekly case rate of 151.9.

Ages 30 to 39 had a rate of 152.9.

Meanwhile, ages 40 to 49 had 129.6 and those from 50 to 64 saw a rate of 95.9.

On the other hand, those from 65 to 74 had a rate of 71.2 and adults aged 75 and over, 63.5.

In the past month, teens ages 16 and 17 had the highest weekly rate of covid-19 cases among all children.

They went from a rate of about 48 per 100,000 on July 10 to about 200 per 100,000 on August 14, before declining last week.

The CDC notes that there may be a delay of up to two weeks in the notification of cases.

Overall, a total of nearly 800,000 COVID-19 cases so far have occurred among teens ages 16-17.

This represents approximately 2.6% of all cases nationwide.

This age group makes up 2.5% of the US population.

Their older peers, ages 18 to 29, account for the highest proportion of COVID-19 cases nationwide, with around 6.7 million infections so far.

This represents 22.7% of all cases, although this age group represents 16.4% of the US population.

  • Miami-Dade Supports Mandatory Mask Wear in Schools and Defies Governor's Order

As more young people get fully vaccinated against COVID-19, that should lower case rates among teens.

And the hope is to keep more teens out of the hospital and intensive care units.

"That older age group, particularly when they have risk factors, tends to have a slightly higher risk of hospitalization. It is the younger than one year and then the older adolescents, in the pediatric age group, who tend to be the groups at higher risk of hospitalization, said O'Leary at the University of Colorado.

About 8 million or 32% of all teens ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far.

And "nationally, about half of 16 to 17-year-olds have received a first dose, so that's a lot of in that age group," O'Leary said.

As more teens get the vaccine, it will still take a while to see the effects.

Covid-19: minors may require a lower dose of vaccine 0:47

"What we saw in clinical trials a long time ago, and I don't think we have anything to suggest that things are different now, is that you start to see an effect after about two weeks after the first dose. And then the greatest effect beginning about a week or two after the second dose, "O'Leary said.

And he added that one dose of vaccine appears to be less effective against the delta variant.

"But also remember that vaccination is underway. It's not like everyone will suddenly receive it today and therefore five weeks from now we will see a huge impact," he said.

"It is that there will be more people who will receive it today and tomorrow and the next day. So it is really a continuous impact. But the sooner the better!"

Covid-19

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-08-26

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