NEW YORK - The number of US child COVID-19 cases is growing faster than total COVID-19 cases of all ages in the week ending Dec. 16, according to data issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association on Monday.

The United States added 169,964 child COVID-19 cases in the week ending Dec. 16 and children represent 23.7 percent of the weekly reported cases in total.

Statistics show that the United States had 7.367 million child COVID-19 cases reported and children accounted for 17.3 percent of total cases of all age groups.

Weekly new child COVID-19 cases have been exceeding 100,000 for 19 weeks in a row and over 2.3 million child COVID-19 cases were added since the first week of September, said the report.

The report is based on publicly reported data from 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.