Fifth graders wearing face masks sit properly socially distanced during a music class at Milton Elementary School in Rye, NY, May 18, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic that closed classrooms has impacted learning in some U.S. school systems by more than a year , with children in areas of high poverty most affected, according to data shared with The Associated Press.
Mary Altaffer/AP
hide caption
change caption
Mary Altaffer/AP
Fifth graders wearing face masks sit properly socially distanced during a music class at Milton Elementary School in Rye, NY, May 18, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic that closed classrooms has impacted learning in some U.S. school systems by more than a year , with children in areas of high poverty most affected, according to data shared with The Associated Press.
Mary Altaffer/AP
COVID-19 was the eighth leading cause of death among children in recent months, according to a study published Monday.
In a one-year period from August 2021 to July 2022, 821 children aged 0 to 19 died from COVID-19 at a rate of 1 per 100,000. Child deaths of any kind are rare, researchers noted.
COVID-19 ranks fifth in non-disease-related deaths and first in deaths from infectious disease or respiratory disease, overtaking the flu and pneumonia.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, the leading causes of death among children were perinatal disease, accidental injuries, birth defects, maltreatment, suicide, cancerous tumors, heart disease, and flu and pneumonia.
The period analyzed by the researchers coincided with the emergence of Delta and Omicron COVID-19 cases. They found that studying other 12-month periods during the pandemic did not change the results.
Researchers noted that their results were limited by the under-reporting of COVID-19 cases and the exclusion of deaths where COVID-19 could have been a contributing or amplifying factor when combined with other conditions, such as the flu.