After two months of steady declines, COVID-19 cases among children have gone up for the second week in a row.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 64,000 new child COVID-19 cases were identified through testing last week.

News 12's Elizabeth Hashagen was joined today by Dr. Sharon Nachman to talk about cases in children and the advancement in vaccines for kids.

This is what Dr. Nachman says about the increases in cases:

Right now, only the Pfizer vaccine has FDA approval for 16 and 17-year-olds. When can we expect that to change for children?

We now have real world data to go with the clinical trial data. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are proving highly effective in preventing coronavirus infections under real-world conditions, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Consistent with clinical trial data, a two-dose regimen prevented 90% of infections by two weeks after the second shot. One dose prevented 80% of infections by two weeks after vaccination. Dr. Nachman discusses what people shouldn't do before being fully vaccinated:

There has been debate over whether vaccinated people can still get asymptomatic infections and transmit the virus to others. A study, by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggested that transmission is extremely unlikely.

Children under 18 account for about 23% of the population in the U.S., so even if a vast majority of adults opt for vaccines, herd immunity might be hard to achieve without children being vaccinated. Dr. Nachman talks about the importance of getting children vaccinated: