More Kids Are Getting COVID-19, Kentucky Pediatrician Says

As coronavirus cases increase across the U.S., children have been increasingly testing positive as well.

Elizabeth Hawse, a pediatrician in Lexington, Ky., says she has seen a jump from earlier this year, when she was getting "sporadic calls."

"But over the past few weeks, we are seeing more and more kids calling the office that they've been exposed or family members exposed and more and more positive cases," Hawse tells Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition.

Children represent about 11.5% of all reported coronavirus cases where a person's age is noted, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association. The groups said the seven-day period of Nov. 5 to 12, the most recent for which they've reported data, was "by far the highest weekly increase" in children's cases since the start of the pandemic.

Children usually do not have severe symptoms of COVID-19 and many have no symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.