85 Babies have tested positive for COVID-19 in Nueces County in Texas. This number is a reflection of when testing started in mid-March, according to a county news release. The news of the 85 infected babies follows a report from earlier this week regarding scientists’ uncertainty on the impact of COVID-19 in children.
Evidence behind what role children play in the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affects them is inconclusive. Several studies suggest but don’t prove that children are less likely to become infected and more likely to have only mild symptoms. Many kids have no symptoms, and it’s unclear how easily they can spread the virus to others.
There is some evidence that kids are less likely to catch the virus and less likely to spread it, but it’s not clear exactly how strong that evidence is. For months most families and their children have been isolated at home, limiting their chances of catching or spreading the virus. In reality, it may take reopening schools and returning children to a closer-to-normal life for the picture to come into clearer focus.
The Associated Press also reported this week on how evidence has been growing that the COVID-19 can spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus. Researchers in Italy studied 31 women with COVID-19 who delivered babies in March and April and found signs of the virus in several samples of umbilical cord blood, the placenta and, in one case, breast milk. Cases of newborns testing positive for the virus have been relatively uncommon but are not unheard of since the pandemic first took hold.
With some respiratory illnesses, like influenza, young children play an amplifying role. They don’t carry the antibodies that adults have amassed. As a result, they are more susceptible to many of the bugs that cause colds and flu, which circulate more actively as the cold weather sets in. This is why teachers are often sick with a cold each season. However COVID-19 isn’t the sniffles, it can cause death. The World Health Organization does not currently see clear answers in the data that have been collected to date.
Two weeks after Israel fully reopened schools, a COVID-19 outbreak swept through classrooms, including at least 130 cases at a single school, that led officials to close dozens of schools where students and staff were infected. At least 42 kindergartens and schools were shuttered indefinitely. More than 6,800 students and teachers were ordered home for quarantine by government order.
Florida’s largest teacher union is suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to overturn an emergency order that requires schools to physically open five days a week in August, despite the incredible surge in cases in the state, saying the policy bypasses local leaders and defies national public health guidelines. DeSantis is followed the lead of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy Devos, who are pressuring states to fill classrooms with students in the fall. “Governor DeSantis needs a reality check, and we are attempting to provide one,” FEA President Fedrick Ingram said in a statement.
In Tallahassee, a 19-year-old elementary school custodian died after a battle with Covid-19, and at least three people at his Leon County school, including the principal, have contracted the virus, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. About 1/3 of children tested in Florida have tested positive for the virus. To date, 16,797 children in Florida have the disease out of 54,022 tested. The data shows that 908 people under the age of 18 have tested positive for COVID-19 in Orange County, which equates to about 24% of the tests conducted on children in the county. Word of children testing positive gets around at summer camps which face pressure to act promptly.