Washington, Aug 30 (IANS): The US has reported nearly 350,000 child Covid-19 cases in the past four weeks, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

About 86,600 child Covid-19 cases were reported for the week ending August 25, an increase of 9 per cent from the week prior, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying on Monday.

Over 14.4 million children have been reported to have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, according to the report.

Approximately 6.6 million reported cases have been added in 2022.

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.

The US has so far reported a total of 96,091,120 Covid-19 cases and 1,069,499 deaths.

The two tallies currently account for the highest in the world.