US schools reopen but Covid-19 continues to rise in children

Clinicians work after intubating a Covid-19 patient in the ICU at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Pic/AFP

Covid-19 cases among US children are climbing at an alarming rate, with nearly 94,000 diagnosed with the virus last week and trends showing a "continuing substantial increase".

Children now account for 15 per cent of Covid-19 cases in the US, according to a study released by The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The same set of numbers also appear to show that severe illness, hospitalisation and death are rare in children who get sick with the Coronavirus.

In states where data was available, less than 2 per cent of all child Covid-19 cases required hospitalisation. In states reporting, only 0.00-0.03 per cent of all child Covid-19 cases resulted in death, according to AAP.

As of August 5, nearly 4.3 million children have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July, says the AAP report. At this time, nearly 60 per cent of US kids over 12 years have been fully vaccinated and nearly 70 per cent have got at least one shot. Shots for kids under 12 years have not yet been authorised.

Pfizer received emergency use authorisation for vaccinating those 12 years of age and older; the Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorised for people 18 years of age and older. Pfizer is expected to apply for emergency approval of the under 12 years shot by October this year. Meanwhile, schools have already started reopening for the Fall term.

India pushes up Dubai's air traffic volume

India continued to be Dubai International Airport's top destination country by traffic volume in the first half of 2021 with passenger numbers exceeding 1.9 million (19 lakh), despite travel restrictions due to Covid-19 affecting its key source markets. The world's busiest airport for international travel clocked 10.6 million passengers in the first six months of 2021, Dubai Airports said on Wednesday, as it projected robust growth for Dubai International in the second half of the year.

‘Herd immunity impossible with Delta variant'

The highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19 has rendered the prospect of herd immunity, where the majority of a country's population becomes immune to a virus, difficult, the head of the UK's Oxford Vaccine Group has warned. Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the team behind the Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine, told the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus on Tuesday that the fear of another even more transmissible variant remains a possibility and therefore there is nothing that can completely stop the deadly virus from spreading.

B'desh gets Chinese vax through COVAX

People disembark from a ferry in Sreenagar to return to their work areas post the Bangladesh government relaxed the lockdown norms for all export-oriented factories. Pic/AFP

Bangladesh has received another batch of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine doses shipped through the COVAX facility. This is the first consignment among three scheduled to arrive from China this week, a health official said. Bangladesh's Health Ministry officials delivered the vaccines after an aircraft arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 7.15 pm on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

5,60,850
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

20,42,86,683
Total no. of cases worldwide

43,19,262
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins