LOS ANGELES, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Over 37,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States the past week, an increase of about 43 percent from two weeks ago, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

       Over 12.9 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic in the country. Almost 124,000 of these cases have been added in the past 4 weeks, according to the report.

       Since the first week of September, there have been nearly 7.9 million additional child COVID-19 cases in the United States.

       Children represented 19 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, the report showed.

       There is an urgent need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects, said the AAP.

       "It is important to recognize there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children's health, but importantly we need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth," said the AAP.