Last week, the number of in children in the U.S. reached levels not seen since the winter surge. And with school in session, the Delta variant on the rise and winter approaching, health officials are concerned it could get worse.
After a decline in early summer, child cases have increased exponentially -- with more than a four-fold increase in the past month, according to the latest report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.
From about 38,000 cases a week near the end of July, the week ending August 19 saw more than 180,000 cases in children, the report said.
The rise has come as according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Health experts have been particularly concerned about cases among children as students return to school, many without mask mandates and without access to vaccines.
(FDA) Monday for Americans 16 and older, which National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told CNN was a "ray of sunshine in the midst of all these dark COVID clouds."
But children under 16 still aren't fully approved for a vaccine, and the emergency use authorizations in place only cover adolescents 12 and older.
Children ages 5 to 11 are the next group in line to become eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and an updated emergency use authorization from the FDA would make at least 28 million additional children -- representing about 9% of the US population -- eligible to receive the vaccine, according to a CNN analysis of federal data.
But the process of authorizing a vaccine for that age group may not be completed until the end of the calendar year, US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, told CNN's Brianna Keilar.
The timing is a problem, Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA's vaccines advisory committee, told CNN, because the more transmissible Delta variant is spreading and the cold dry weather of winter months makes it easier for the virus to spread -- all while children are sat together in classrooms.
"You are going to have a group of fully susceptible people all in one place," he told Jake Tapper. "That's not a good recipe."
And though it would be good to have vaccines for children before then, it is important for health officials to take their time in making sure the vaccines are tested heavily and deemed safe.
"You are going to be doing trials in four thousand, seven thousand, ten thousand children and then you are going to be giving vaccine to millions of children," Offit said. "We're moving as quickly as we can, it's just not easy to move that quickly when you talk about doing big vaccine trials."
As cases rise among children, some school leaders are pressing for precautions while others are banning mask mandates.
Throughout Florida's 15 largest school districts, at least 11,851 students and 2,610 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, amounting to more than 14,461 confirmed cases since the school districts started keeping track of cases for the 2021-22 school year, according to a CNN analysis.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued an executive order banning schools from instituting mask mandates, but eight counties have defied the order as cases have grown.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster also issued a ban on mask mandates, prompting (ACLU), according to a complaint filed Tuesday.
"This is a disability rights issue," said Susan Mizner, ACLU Disability Rights Program Director.
"Students with health conditions or disabilities that make them vulnerable to COVID have a right to attend school without endangering their health or safety. Schools who have children with these conditions have legal obligations under federal disability rights laws," Mizner said in an ACLU statement.
McMaster's spokesman Brian Symmes declined to specifically comment on the lawsuit, but said, "The only truly inclusive option is to allow every parent to decide whether their child will wear a mask in school."
On the other hand, the Los Angeles Unified School District has implemented strong mitigation measures and appears to have kept infection rates under 1% during the first week of classes.
The district, the second-largest in the country, enacted the measures throughout its more than 1,000 schools.
Teachers and employees in the district are required to be fully vaccinated by October 15. Masks are required for all students, staff and visitors. The district also has a "cohort" model in place, which aims to keep as many students in the same classroom with the same group of students as often as possible.
A rigorous and costly testing initiative has also been put into place. Every student and employee must undergo free weekly testing regardless of vaccination status in order to be able to enter a school.
The spread of the Delta variant has impacted vaccine effectiveness, but vaccination is still a strong protector against illness, hospitalization and deaths, reports found.
According to , once the Delta variant accounted for the majority of circulating virus, vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 infection dropped from 91% to 66%.
"While we did see a reduction in the protection of the COVID-19 vaccine against the Delta variant, it's still two-thirds reduction of risk," lead author Ashley Fowlkes, an epidemiologist for CDC COVID-19 Emergency Response, told CNN Tuesday.
But areaffirms that fully vaccinated people are far less likely than unvaccinated people to be hospitalized, admitted to an intensive care unit, require mechanical ventilation or die from COVID-19.
"On July 25, infection and hospitalization rates among unvaccinated persons were 4.9 and 29.2 times, respectively, those in fully vaccinated persons," researchers from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health wrote in the study, which was .
"It's still a very powerful vaccine," Fowlkes said, especially when it comes to more severe outcomes. "But we are also looking towards continuing to use masks for a little bit longer."
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and air raid sirens sounded across the country as residents were ordered to remain close to bomb shelters.
Canada will be imposing a 25 per cent surtax on select imports of steel and aluminum from China, after unveiling its final list of impacted products on Tuesday.
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard denies that he raped the woman who is accusing him of sexual assault, or that he touched her sexually in any way without her consent.
Princess Beatrice is pregnant with her second child, Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday.
In the second part of a five-part series, W5's Avery Haines follows the journeys of migrants who risk life and limb to ride atop Mexican freight trains, desperate to avoid narco territory as they make their way towards the U.S. border.
As October begins, several provinces are bracing for frosty conditions and some are facing a snowy start, according to local forecasts.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has controversially broken royal protocol and claimed in his upcoming memoir that Queen Elizabeth II was suffering from bone cancer before her death.
A cruise ship taking passengers on a 3-and-a-half-year around-the-world voyage finally sailed from Belfast's dockside, after spending four months stuck in the Northern Ireland capital.
The minimum wage in four provinces is going up today.
The abatement and decommissioning work at 24 Sussex Drive is complete, as the National Capital Commission awaits a decision by the federal government on the future of the official residence of the prime minister.
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard denies that he raped the woman who is accusing him of sexual assault, or that he touched her sexually in any way without her consent.
A B.C. condo owner who was blamed for a cockroach infestation in her building and charged thousands of dollars for the cost of eradicating the bugs must be refunded, the civil resolution tribunal ruled.
Ontario Provincial Police laid charges against an Ottawa driver after a child was found to not be wearing a seatbelt inside a vehicle early Sunday morning.
Ontario politicians are set to make their annual pilgrimage to the International Plowing Match today.
Saskatchewan residents will vote for their next provincial government on Oct. 28.
A bus carrying young students and their teachers on a school trip caught fire in suburban Bangkok on Tuesday, leaving more than 20 feared dead, officials and rescuers said.
As Israel pummels southern Lebanon with airstrikes, tens of thousands of residents are fleeing their homes in fear. But Hamza is staying. His mission is to care for the dogs and other animals left behind.
Tim Walz and JD Vance will meet for their first and possibly only vice-presidential debate Tuesday, in what could be the last debate for both campaigns to argue their case before the U.S. election.
Newly unearthed reports contradict previous claims made by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz about his travel to China, including a claim that he traveled to China during the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.
Princess Beatrice is pregnant with her second child, Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday.
Jimmy Carter reached his 100th birthday Tuesday, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the son of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and across the world as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy.
Canada will be imposing a 25 per cent surtax on select imports of steel and aluminum from China, after unveiling its final list of impacted products on Tuesday.
The Bloc Quebecois will try to put the squeeze on the Liberals today by calling for a debate in the House of Commons about increasing old age pension payments for all seniors.
The House of Commons will hold an emergency debate this evening on the crisis in Lebanon after Israel's ground incursion intensified fears of a full-scale invasion.
For the first time in Rwanda’s history, its health ministry is dealing with an outbreak of Marburg virus disease, a rare but deadly hemorrhagic disease similar to Ebola – but unlike Ebola, there is no treatment or vaccines for Marburg, and it has a fatality rate of 88 per cent.
Health Canada issued a recall last week for various sexual enhancement products for containing prescribed drugs like tadalafil and sildenafil.
The fertility rate in Canada reached an all-time low in 2023, and the lowest rate was recorded in British Columbia, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday's arrival of a SpaceX capsule.
The space rock — 2024 PT5 — was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa.
Canadian innovators and technical leaders gathered in Ottawa Thursday to demonstrate the latest cutting-edge technology.
Gavin Creel, a Tony-winning Broadway veteran known for his work in productions of “Hello, Dolly!†“Waitress†and “The Book of Mormon,†has died, according to his representative. He was 48.
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard denies that he raped the woman who is accusing him of sexual assault, or that he touched her sexually in any way without her consent.
A Scottish woman accused of stalking 'Baby Reindeer' creator and star Richard Gadd can proceed with her defamation lawsuit against Netflix, after a federal judge in California refused to dismiss all of the claims.
Restaurant company SIR Corp. is investigating a cybersecurity incident that has impacted part of its information technology infrastructure.
A strike by U.S. dockworkers at 36 ports from Maine to Texas, the first in decades, could snarl supply chains and lead to shortages and higher prices if it stretches on for more than a few weeks.
The minimum wage in four provinces is going up today.
A cruise ship taking passengers on a 3-and-a-half-year around-the-world voyage finally sailed from Belfast's dockside, after spending four months stuck in the Northern Ireland capital.
Have you been caught in a bind, far from home, that could have been avoided with the timely purchase of an insurance package? We want to hear from you.
Kim Ruether lifted her son's eyelid and saw his still, dilated pupil staring at the ceiling as he lay on a stretcher in a northwestern Alberta hospital hallway a decade ago. She says she didn't need a doctor to tell her the boy was dead.
Ryan Hunter's athleticism has been on full display since his arrival in the CFL, but the Canadian's versatility is now shining through.
Toronto Raptors team president Masai Ujiri tried to lay to rest rumours that he has friction with Edward Rogers, the executive chair of Rogers Communications, Inc.
Dikembe Mutombo, a Basketball Hall of Famer who was one of the best defensive players in NBA history and a longtime global ambassador for the game, died Monday after a battle with brain cancer, the league announced. He was 58.
General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle division will pay a US$1.5 million penalty after the unit failed to fully report a crash involving a pedestrian, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday.
A tale about a taxicab hauling gold and sinking through the ice on Larder Lake, Ont., in December 1937 has captivated a man from that town for decades.
A U.S. driver somehow squeezed her vehicle through a parkade hallway at a Metro Vancouver casino Thursday, before getting stuck at an elevator bank.
On Saturday night at her parents’ home in Delaware, Ont. the Olympic bronze medallist in pole vault welcomed everyone who played a role in getting her to the podium in Paris.
A tale about a taxicab hauling gold and sinking through the ice on Larder Lake, Ont., in December 1937 has captivated a man from that town for decades.
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A pizza chain in Edmonton claims to have the world's largest deliverable pizza.
Sarah McLachlan is returning to her hometown of Halifax in November.
Wayne MacKay is still playing basketball twice at Mount Allison University at 87 years old.
A man from a small rural Alberta town is making music that makes people laugh.
An Indigenous artist has a buyer-beware warning ahead of Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
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Four Indian nationals accused of murdering Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar are expected to appear in Surrey provincial court Tuesday.
Police in Victoria are searching for witnesses and video evidence after a motorcyclist was seriously injured in a single-vehicle crash Monday night.
The New Democrats are campaigning for another term in British Columbia's provincial election but without many of the familiar faces that have graced lawn signs of elections past.
One male is dead following a shooting at a plaza in North York, Toronto police say. The incident occurred near Marlee Avenue and Lawrence Avenue West, near Allen Road, shortly before midnight.
One person is dead and two others are in hospital after a break-in at a Mississauga home early Tuesday morning ended in gunfire, Peel police say.
The island airport will be back on the agenda at Toronto City Hall today as a new report about extending the runway at Billy Bishop Airport comes to Mayor Olivia Chow's Executive Committee.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) says safeguards have been put in place at a gas well fire north of the town of Cochrane.
Police are investigating a suspicious death in Cityscape, Calgary's third such death over the long weekend.
Intense westerly winds flowed over the Rockies early Tuesday and, according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada, as of 7 a.m. peak gusts at Nakiska Ridgetop hit 142 km/h.
Three design concepts have been unveiled to replace the aging Alexandra Bridge connecting Ottawa and Gatineau over the Ottawa River.
The Ottawa Police Service is investigating a crash between a vehicle and an e-scooter that left a youth with serious injuries on Monday morning.
The abatement and decommissioning work at 24 Sussex Drive is complete, as the National Capital Commission awaits a decision by the federal government on the future of the official residence of the prime minister.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault says his government has asked Ottawa to set up "waiting zones" for asylum seekers, as is the practice in France.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and air raid sirens sounded across the country as residents were ordered to remain close to bomb shelters.
The sex crimes case against Montreal billionaire Robert Miller has been put off until December.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and air raid sirens sounded across the country as residents were ordered to remain close to bomb shelters.
A soggy start to October as an area of low pressure develops in northwest Alberta this morning.
A Progressive Conservative candidate in New Brunswick’s upcoming election is under fire Tuesday morning for a Facebook post she made on Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Northumberland Ferries Limited says ferry service between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island won’t resume for at least another two weeks as both vessels continue to undergo repairs.
Environment Canada has issued frost advisories for much of New Brunswick.
Minimum wage is set to increase on Tuesday in Manitoba.
Intense winds gusting in southern Manitoba over the weekend caused a flurry of problems on roadways and in homes.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and air raid sirens sounded across the country as residents were ordered to remain close to bomb shelters.
Saskatchewan residents will vote for their next provincial government on Oct. 28.
Exclusive polling data collected by Â鶹´«Ã½ in partnership with Insightrix outlines what preferences voters have, if they’re familiar with the party leaders and what issues matter most as Saskatchewan enters into the 2024 provincial election campaign.
With the writ for Saskatchewan's provincial election set to be issued on Tuesday and election day scheduled for Oct. 28, residents have approximately one month to decide which MLA to vote for.
Those earning minimum wage in Ontario will now make more money per hour. The annual wage increase is tied to inflation and jumps to $17.20 per hour on Tuesday, marking a 3.9 per cent increase from the previous rate of $16.55 per hour.
Residents are being asked to avoid the New Dundee Road and Homer Watson Boulevard area of Kitchener.
Police said a woman, identified by friends and family as Susan Bard, was riding southbound when she was hit by the driver of a Ford sedan.
Saskatchewan residents will vote for their next provincial government on Oct. 28.
Exclusive polling data collected by Â鶹´«Ã½ in partnership with Insightrix outlines what preferences voters have, if they’re familiar with the party leaders and what issues matter most as Saskatchewan enters into the 2024 provincial election campaign.
The Saskatchewan election campaign is underway, with voting day on Oct. 28. Here's a look at key issues and party promises:
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and air raid sirens sounded across the country as residents were ordered to remain close to bomb shelters.
Provincial police say a 58-year-old central Ontario man was the pedestrian killed by a commercial vehicle on Highway 17 last week.
As the investigation continues into the fatal northern Ontario house fire that killed four people on the evening of Sept. 19, police have released some details about the victims.
Some officials with the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) have been placed on leave while an operational review is being conducted. Staff were notified of the leaves in an e-mail from Interim Director of Education Bill Tucker.
Emergency crews were called to a private property on Evelyn Drive in Thames Centre just after midnight on Tuesday.
Police in Sarnia are investigating after a man was shot in the face and neck several times with a pellet gun. Around 2:10 p.m. on Sunday, officers responded to an apartment building in the 100 block of East Street near Wellington Street for a weapons call.
A 39-year-old man of no fixed address accused of seriously injuring a Barrie police officer is facing several criminal charges.
Police are appealing to the public for information as they investigate a fatal pedestrian collision in Bradford.
A federal offender wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after allegedly breaching his statutory release in May is in custody.
Caesars Windsor Cares has selected the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation as the beneficiary of this year’s Concerts for a Cure campaign.
Chatham-Kent police say a woman has been charged with assault after burning a bystander with a lighter during a dispute.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized $11,000 US from an inbound American citizen at the Ambassador Bridge.
Police in Victoria are searching for witnesses and video evidence after a motorcyclist was seriously injured in a single-vehicle crash Monday night.
All three major B.C. political parties have expressed support for building a new patient tower at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, which has long been requested by health-care advocates and doctors.
The B.C. Green Party is expected to be the first to roll out its complete election platform today.
Fire crews in Vernon, B.C., responded to a large house fire early Saturday morning.
A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
The sentencing for three men convicted of helping lead and coordinate the COVID-19 protest blockade at Coutts, Alta., in 2022 has been delayed.
A 10-year-old boy from Lethbridge is being praised as a hero after a routine summer outing at the pool nearly turned tragic for his friend.
A man and woman have been charged after a Lethbridge ice creamery was broken into earlier this week. Staff arrived at Cookie Crimes, in the 300 block of Sixth Street South, just before 5:30 a.m. on Monday to discover the front window broken.
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard denies that he raped the woman who is accusing him of sexual assault, or that he touched her sexually in any way without her consent.
Overnight on Thursday as the community of Elliot Lake was resting to prepare for the upcoming Kraft Hockeyville celebrations, when vandals struck a building that has been top of mind for the northern Ontario city for more than a year.
Ontario Provincial Police remind the public that ‘a case is never closed until it is solved,’ while highlighting the force's continued investigation of the 1996 disappearance of Melanie Ethier.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
A soccer game in England on Tuesday night drove a spike in online traffic across the Atlantic to a website launched by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
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