Cobb Reporter

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released data from the end of 2021 showing the rate of positive tests for COVID-19 in children has reached a record high since the pandemic started.

While children tend to experience milder symptoms than adults in most cases, experts worry about the lasting effects the coronavirus may have on children and the population at large, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

"At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children," the AAP said in a statement. "However, there is an urgent need to collect more data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as the longer-term impacts of the pandemic 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."

Since the pandemic started, approximately 7.9 million kids in the U.S. have returned positive COVID-19 test results, the AAP reported. This means more than 10% of the country's children have contracted the virus. At the time the data was released, it had been the 21st week in a row that more than 100,000 children were infected with the virus.

Over 206 million Americans who are at least age 5 are current with their vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. This is approximately 66.2% of those eligible for the vaccine.

Hospitals are seeing a record number in hospitalization rates of children due to the omicron variant, with most of those hospitalized being unvaccinated, the CDC reported. During the last week of December, 378 children 17 and younger were admitted to the hospital daily on average, which is a 66% jump from the previous week.