Children made up 15% of the reported weekly Covid-19 cases in the US for the week ending August 5, according to a recent report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Amid a surge of infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant in the country, almost 94,000 Covid-19 cases among children were reported the past week, "a continuing substantial increase," said the AAP in the report updated on August 9.

"After declining in early summer, child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July," it said.

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As of August 5, nearly 4.3 million children had caught Covid in the US since the onset of the pandemic, the report said.

"At this time, it appears that severe illness due to Covid-19 is uncommon among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects," it added.

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The US is now averaging about 650 deaths a day, increasing more than 80% from two weeks ago and going past the 600 mark Saturday for the first time in three months.

Data on the age and demographics of victims during the delta surge is still limited, but hospitals in virus hotspots say they are seeing more admissions and deaths among people under the age of 65.