Cases of COVID-19 in Georgia children have risen nearly 60% since last week

ATLANTA — Cases of COVID-19 in school-age children have risen nearly 60% in just one week, according to data from the Georgia Department of Health.

Georgia reported nearly 8,000 new cases of COVID-19 among children ages 17 and under the week of August 13, up from 5,095 cases last week.

On August 18, children 17 and under accounted for 13.6% of all emergency room visits.

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Of the cases reported this week, 6,539 were among kids ages 5 - 17 years old and 1,187 cases were reported among children 0 - 4 years old. That’s an increase of 59.2% in kids ages 5 - 17 and 20.3% in kids ages 0 - 4.

A total of 1,314 children ages 17 and younger have been admitted to Georgia hospitals since the start of the pandemic.

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More children have been diagnosed with the virus in August than at any other time during the pandemic. At the previous height of the pandemic in January, the state recorded the highest seven-day case average in children ages 0 -17 at 868 daily cases.

Friday’s daily average in the same age group was nearly double that, at 1,633 cases. Children ages 10 - 17 made up the majority of those cases.

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