Nearly 4 million children in the US have been infected with COVID-19 as of May 2021.
While most children have had mild or no symptoms, thousands have been hospitalized and several hundred have died. Children with underlying conditions are more likely to experience severe effects of COVID-19, but even healthy children can be severely affected. Children can spread COVID-19 to others and also can have long-term effects that last months. For these reasons, children need to be protected from COVID-19.