Most North Carolina kids have had COVID-19

About three-quarters of North Carolina’s youngsters have already been contaminated with COVID-19, new CDC knowledge reveals.

Driving the information: The CDC’s pediatric antibody seroprevalence survey, launched final week, examined samples from almost 500 North Carolinians ranging in age from 6 months outdated to 17 years.

• The outcomes point out that an estimated 79.5% of these youngsters had at the very least one resolving or previous an infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Why it issues: Firstly of the 2022-23 faculty 12 months, the story of our youngsters’s relationship with COVID-19 is dramatically totally different from what it was final 12 months or the 12 months earlier than.

• These two Augusts introduced livid arguments over prevention — if and when to reopen in 2020, whether or not to finish masks insurance policies in 2021.
• This 12 months, with vaccines broadly accessible for folks 6 months and up, the Wake County Public Colleges COVID-19 web page is a touchdown spot for suggestions, not mandates, and recommendations on methods to decrease danger for probably the most susceptible.

By the numbers: About 69% of Wake County youngsters between ages 12-17 have acquired at the very least one vaccine dose, in keeping with NCDHHS. 49% of youngsters ages 5-11 have a dose, and 12% of youngsters between 0-4 do.

• Durham County’s numbers are about the identical, with the one exception: a noticeably greater share of youngsters ages 0-4 (17%) has acquired a dose.

The underside line: Most North Carolina faculty methods on a standard calendar welcome college students again this coming Monday, and for the primary time because the begin of the pandemic, a lot of the youngsters sitting at desks may have had COVID-19.