Fifth grade students wearing face masks stand for proper social distancing during a music class at Milton Elementary School in Rye, NY, May 18, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic that they closed classrooms are behind learning in some US school systems by more than a year, with children in high-poverty areas most affected, according to data shared with The Associated Press.
Mary Altaffer/AP
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Mary Altaffer/AP
Fifth graders wearing face masks stand at proper social distance during a music class at Milton Elementary School in Rye, NY, May 18, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic that closed classrooms behind learning in some US school systems by more than a year, with children in high-poverty areas affected the most, 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, the researchers noted.
COVID-19 ranked fifth in non-disease-related deaths and first in deaths from infectious or respiratory diseases, surpassing influenza and pneumonia.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, the leading causes of death among children were perinatal conditions, unintentional injuries, birth defects, assault, suicide, cancerous tumors, heart disease and influenza and pneumonia.
The time period the researchers analyzed coincided with the increase in Delta and Omicron COVID-19 cases. They found that studying other 12-month periods during the pandemic did not change the results.
The researchers noted that their results were limited by the underreporting of cases of COVID-19, and the exclusion of deaths where COVID-19 may have been a contributing or amplifying factor along with ‘ other conditions, such as the flu.
