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The majority of young people in the U. S. U. S. residents have returned to school during the year, as districts aim to get young people back to an environment that resembles pre-pandemic normalcy.
Masks are now optional in most classrooms, and last month the Centers for Disease and Prevention said it would no longer recommend that schools use the checkup to stay, allowing students who were close contacts of those who tested positive for COVID-19 to continue attending. categories of people if they remained asymptomatic and continued to test negative.
Dr. Greta Massetti, lead for epidemiology and case prevention at the CDC, told reporters at the time that because other vaccinated and unvaccinated people were no longer asked to quarantine, verification of remains was no longer necessary.
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Cases and hospitalizations don’t appear to be rising dramatically, with adults having the highest rate of consistent weekly cases at 100,000, according to CDC data.
But Mavens said check knowledge is rarely as physically powerful as it was in the past two school years, making it difficult to compare existing knowledge with past seasons.
“There are smart reasons to be cautiously optimistic,” Dr. Jim Versalovic, a lead pathologist at Texas Children’s Hospital, told ABC News. weeks. “
He continued, “There are more at-home tests available and we don’t have all the knowledge of testing, but we now have enough knowledge to, hopefully, say that positivity for COVID has decreased by less than 5% in our most recent seven-day moving average and now we’re also in single digit hospitalizations, which is a big deal. “
According to CDC data, 100,000 weekly instances are more consistent in the adult organization than in children. Children older than 5 to 11 years have the lowest rate with 15. 6 out of 100,000, compared with those over 75 with 41. 6 out of 100,000 with the highest.
In addition, the rate of weekly cases has dropped considerably since the summer. Just two months earlier, the case rate among children aged 5 to 11 was 114. 6 consistent with 100,000.
Versalovic and other experts note that there are several reasons why there is no primary development in COVID-19 cases among children in the new school year.
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This includes a smaller extension of the network overall; schools with higher air filtering; children can play outdoors, which is less likely to spread, before it gets cold; and vaccination.
Currently, 60. 7 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds are fully immunized, according to CDC data. This compares to 47. 7% who were fully vaccinated at the same time last year.
Meanwhile, 31. 4% of children aged 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated. Although adoption in this age organization lags far behind older children, vaccination. This is a very large accumulation from 0. 4% in the same period last year.
“That wasn’t the case a year ago,” Versalovic said. “A year ago, we were still looking to vaccinate schoolchildren. We now have those vaccines available since last November and we’ve had boosters available. “summer. “
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However, he said vaccination rates, especially among young children, were lower than he would like to see. Only 1. 2 percent of children younger than 2 and 2. 3 percent of children ages 2 to 4 are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
“We can’t be complacent about it. ” He said: “Vaccination rates have not been as high as we expected. It gives us a break as we look into winter. “
The number of tests has decreased because testing has been drastically reduced at fitness centers and schools, Mavens said. Testing the fitness authorities.
“There are some vital caveats,” Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and a contributor to ABC News, told ABC News. “We know that global testing, testing volume is decreasing. The incentives for testing have changed, signaled this relief in testing systems to stay. “
“It can be argued that this can potentially be a pre-typhoon lull as we experience the colder months, more indoor activities, drier situations that facilitate greater transmission of respiratory viruses,” he added.
Low testing rates may mask potential surges in study rooms or underestimate asymptomatic cases.
Brownstein said there’s reason to be positive because a new variant hasn’t emerged yet: The omicron variant and its subvariants have remained dominant for nearly a year compared to 2021, when the dominant variant replaced every few months.
“There is a lot of room for optimism, even in the face of a sudden increase, due to the availability of vaccines and treatments,” he said. “That said, it has surprised us in each and every twist and turn of the pandemic. And therefore, it surely makes sense for us to remain vigilant and use the most productive knowledge imaginable to make decisions. “
Experts on the importance of getting children vaccinated, especially in case COVID-19 infections accumulate in the fall and winter.
MORE: Which states have the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates?
“The number one tool we have to save you from the disease is vaccines,” Versalovic said. “These vaccines are effective and, in fact, have proven to be even more effective than we ever imagined in the afterlife. “year. “
Brownstein added that some children, such as those who are immunocompromised or live with a family circle member at higher risk for severe illness, may need other preventive measures, such as wearing masks.
“Even if mask or testing is needed, those are equipment that can still be used as needed, depending on your type of threat tolerance and the threat of family circle members,” he said. “Overall, lately we are in a smart time where transmission is decreasing and we do not face the threat of a new highly transmissible variant, but we must not forget that we will have to be flexible as we continue this school year. “
Why COVID cases aren’t emerging dramatically despite schools opening hinted at abcnews. go. com