Virus cases on rise in kids, CDC says

The number and rate of coronavirus cases in children have risen since the pandemic took hold in the spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in recently updated guidance, underscoring the risk for young people and their families as the new school year begins.

According to the CDC, the infection rate in children 17 and under increased "steadily" from March to July. While the virus is far more prevalent and severe among adults, the true incidence of infection in American children remains unknown because of a lack of widespread testing, the agency said.

The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization Saturday for a saliva-based coronavirus test, developed by Yale University researchers, that aims to reduce turnaround times in commercial laboratories.

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The United States continues to report more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths every day. Health officials reported 1,220 new deaths and 57,120 new infections Saturday -- roughly even with the 1,117 deaths and 56,555 cases announced on the same day last week.

New York is making progress against the virus after experiencing the country's most severe outbreak in the spring. Hospitalizations have reached their lowest point since March 17, officials said. The state reported a record 88,668 tests Friday, with fewer than 1% coming back positive for the eighth consecutive day.

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School closures and other public health measures may have contributed to initially low rates of coronavirus infections in children early in the pandemic, according to the CDC.

"This may explain the low incidence in children compared with adults," the agency said in its guidance. "Comparing trends in pediatric infections before and after the return to in-person school and other activities may provide additional understanding about infections in children."

Children between 5 and 17 years old also test positive for the coronavirus at higher rates than any other age group, according to CDC data, with positivity rates exceeding 10% in public and private lab tests.

The virus incubation period is the same for children as it is for adults. Children are far less likely to develop severe symptoms, but when they are hospitalized for complications from the virus, about a third are sent to the intensive care unit, the same rate as adults, according to the CDC.

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BACK TO SCHOOL

The new academic year could bring new challenges.

In Mississippi, where most children are returning to school for in-person learning, more than 100 students and staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days and hundreds more have been forced to quarantine. Nearly half the state's schools have reported cases, the Clarion-Ledger recently reported. The state also has the highest daily reported deaths in the country, according to tracking by The Washington Post.

Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said Sunday that the virus spread was not pervasive enough in Mississippi schools to justify any shutdowns. He said the state had plans in place to take action if infections became more widespread, but dismissed concerns about school outbreaks, claiming, without citing specific evidence, that most infected children had contracted the virus from elsewhere in the community.

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"Keep this in perspective. We have 300,000 kids in classrooms. We've had approximately 100 cases that have been confirmed positive," he told CBS News' "Face the Nation."

"The point is, no kid, whether they're in school or not, is completely immune from getting the virus," he said. "And so we've got to take measures to make sure that those kids have the opportunity to learn."

In other places where the academic year is beginning, virus concerns have already forced officials to cancel classes or reverse plans to bring students back after attempting to reopen amid the pandemic.

A Nebraska school district on Saturday pushed classes back for a week after three staff members tested positive. Schools in Georgia and Tennessee also recently canceled classes after students and staff fell ill with covid-19, the diseased caused by the virus.

In Arizona, a school district that voted to resume in-person learning despite missing state health benchmarks paused its reopening indefinitely after teachers threatened not to show up, citing fears about the virus spread.

"We have received an overwhelming response from staff indicating that they do not feel safe returning to classrooms with students," Gregory Wyman, the district superintendent, said in a note to parents over the weekend.

WHITE HOUSE PUSH

The series of false starts doesn't bode well for districts that have moved forward with in-person reopening plans advocated by the Trump administration, which has insisted that a full-fledged return to school is essential for children's academic and social well-being.

White House officials have continued to press their case for reopening schools. Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior White House adviser, told "Face the Nation" Sunday that he didn't believe the coronavirus posed serious risks to children and said he and Ivanka Trump had no qualms about their children returning.

"We absolutely will be sending our kids back to school," he said, "and I have no fear in doing so."

Kushner defended the administration's handling of the pandemic response as new daily coronavirus cases and deaths have flatlined nationwide.

"We know a lot more than we did five months ago," he said.

Also on Sunday, Cherokee County school officials said Creekview High School in Canton, Ga., would suspend in-person learning through Aug. 31, becoming the third school in the district to temporarily end in-person learning, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The move came after 25 students tested positive for covid-19 and 500 of the 1,800 students taking in-person classes at the school were quarantined. The school district says it expects that once pending tests come back the number of quarantined students will "significantly increase," according to the newspaper.

The Creekview closure comes about two weeks after 31,000 students who opted for in-person learning resumed classes and followed a transition to online-only classes at two other Cherokee County high schools.

One of those schools, Etowah High School, made national headlines after a photo showed dozens of maskless students squeezed together for first-day-of-school senior photos.

MASK ABOUT-FACE

Separately, Georgia's governor, who has opposed local mask mandates and even sued over one in Atlanta, has signed a new executive order that allows local governments to enact mask requirements to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

As with previous orders, the one issued Saturday says residents and visitors of the state are "strongly encouraged" to wear face coverings when they are outside of their homes, except when eating, drinking or exercising outside. But unlike previous orders, this one allows local governments in counties that have reached a "threshold requirement" to require the wearing of masks on government-owned property.

A county meets that threshold requirement if it has had 100 or more confirmed cases of covid-19 per 100,000 people over the previous 14 days. Only two of Georgia's 159 counties were below that threshold, according to data from the state Department of Public Health.

Local mask mandates cannot result in fines, fees or penalties against private businesses or organizations, and penalties against individuals for noncompliance cannot include a fine greater than $50 and cannot include prison time, the order says. If people are not in compliance, local authorities must warn them "about the health risks posed by not wearing a face mask or face covering" before issuing a citation.

Local mask requirements can't be enforced on residential property and can only be enforced on private property, including businesses, if the owner or occupant consents to enforcement, the order says.

"This order also protects Georgia businesses from government overreach by restricting the application and enforcement of local masking requirements to public property," Gov. Brian Kemp said in a news release accompanying the order, which is in effect through Aug. 31. "While I support local control, it must be properly balanced with property rights and personal freedoms."

SOUTH KOREA FLARE-UP

In South Korea, health officials reported 279 new coronavirus cases Sunday, warning of a resurgence of infections, many linked to a church that has vocally opposed President Moon Jae-in.

South Korea had battled the epidemic down to two-digit daily caseloads since April. But the number of new cases has soared recently, with 103 on Friday and 166 on Saturday, most of them worshippers at the Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul, the capital, and another church in the surrounding province of Gyeonggi.

When South Korea was hit by its first wave of the coronavirus in late February and early March, the epidemic spread mainly from the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the central city of Daegu, about 150 miles southeast of Seoul.

​In the past four days, the Sarang ​Jeil Church alone has reported at least ​193 cases among its members and contacts, the Seoul metropolitan government said. Moon on Sunday warned of a surge in infections in coming days as health officials rush to test thousands of ​church ​members and their contacts.

The Sarang ​Jeil Church's chief pastor, the Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon, has been a driving force behind rallies against Moon in Seoul in recent months. Jun accuses Moon's liberal government of trying to "communize" South Korea and urges an uprising to "oust" ​the president from office.

His political activism included calling for a large anti-Moon rally in Seoul on Saturday.

The Seoul ​city government banned the rally. More than 4,000 members of Jun's church were also ordered to self-isolate for two weeks.

But Jun ​ignored the order, attending a rally in central Seoul​ on Saturday​ organized by another anti-government group. He claimed that the outbreak in his church had been caused by a "terrorist" attack.

Local news media reported that members of his church were among thousands of anti-government protesters Saturday.

Moon on Sunday called their participation in the rally an "unpardonable act."

ELSEWHERE

In other developments:

• Lebanon, still grappling with the aftermath of the Aug. 4 blast that killed 180 people and wounded thousands, has registered a record daily number of coronavirus infections, with 439 people contracting the virus and six fatalities.

• Vacationers arriving in Rome from four Mediterranean countries lined up with their suitcases at Leonardo da Vinci airport to be immediately tested for the new coronavirus on Sunday. Last week, Italy's health minister issued an ordinance requiring the tests for all travelers arriving in Italy from Croatia, Greece, Malta or Spain.

• Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, said Sunday that she had tested negative for the new coronavirus after a July 30 announcement that she had tested positive.

• Kahului Airport on Maui, Hawaii, has completed its second phase of its thermal screening project meant to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The screening uses thermal imaging and facial recognition technology to pinpoint people with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher. Dual lens cameras have been installed at all arrival gates and TSA checkpoints in the airport.

Information for this article was contributed by Derek Hawkins of The Washington Post; by Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times; and by The Associated Press.

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