Nearly 13,000 kids diagnosed with COVID-19 this week in Georgia

ATLANTA — Nearly 13,000 children in Georgia were diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, marking a huge jump in cases among kids 17 and under than just the week before.

At least 12,703 children were reported to have the virus this past week.

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Cases went up 68% among children ages five to 17 and 44% in children ages zero to four years old.

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The positivity rate among children five to 17 is 16.7% this week.

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The 7-day average in Georgia for daily COVID-19 cases among children ages zero to 17 is 1,984, which is higher than any other point of the pandemic. During the previous peak in January, the 7-day-average in the same age group was just 867.

There have been a total of 118,521 cases among kids ages five through 17 in Georgia since the pandemic started. Nearly 17% of those cases happened in the last two weeks, according to data from the Georgia Department of Health.

Cases of COVID-19 in children appear to be relatively mild, even with the highly-contagious delta variant surging. Only 12 children 17 and younger have reportedly died of the virus in Georgia.

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