Medical Board Says, "Stop Issuing Bogus Mask Exemptions to Students"

Some schools down south start the school year 2nd week in August, while in the Northeast, we mostly start after Labor Day.  PA and NJ have implemented statewide mask mandate for this school year due to rising COVID rates, especially among children nationwide.

CNN   9/02/21

More than 500,000 children tested positive for Covid-19 in 3 weeks. Experts say school mask mandates are needed

American Academy of Pediatrics: Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report 8/26/21

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As of August 26, nearly 4.8 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. About 204,000 cases were added the past week, marking the second week with child cases at the level of the Winter surge of 2020-21. After declining in early Summer, child cases have increased exponentially, with over a five-fold increase the past month, rising from about 38,000 cases the week ending July 22nd to nearly 204,000 the past week.

Change in Child COVID-19 Cases*
• 203,962 child COVID-19 cases were reported the past week from 8/19/21-8/26/21 (4,593,721 to 4,797,683) and children represented 22.4% (203,962/910,826) of the weekly reported cases

• Over two weeks, 8/12/21-8/26/21, there was a 9% increase in the cumulated number of child COVID-19 cases (384,137 cases added
(4,413,547 to 4,797,683))

Testing (11 states reported)*^
• Among states reporting, children made up between 10.9%-20.8% of total cumulated state tests, and between 4.8%-17.6% of children tested were tested positive

Hospitalizations (24 states and NYC reported)*
• Among states reporting, children ranged from 1.6%-3.6% of their total cumulated hospitalizations, and 0.1%-1.9% of all their child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization