Cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have taken on a new trend as children have become disproportionately the most infected group in the country.

In a report released on Monday by the American Pediatrics Association (APA) and the Children’s Hospital Association, researchers found that there were at least 141,905 new cases among children in the week ending Nov. 18, which represented a quarter of all total cases last week. This was 32% higher than two weeks prior and represents what the APA said was the 15th week in which COVID cases among children stood at over 100,000.

The rise in cases comes as children remain the least vaccinated group in the country. Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for those 12 to 15 years of age on May 10 and for those aged 5 to 11 on Oct. 29.

The Biden administration has touted its swift vaccination efforts among children once the vaccines became available, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that they remain low.

As of Monday, of those in the 12-to-17 age group, 60.7% have received at least one dose of the vaccine while only 51.1% of this group are fully vaccinated. About 10.7% of those in the 5-to-11 age group have received one dose of a vaccine, but those that are fully vaccinated represent 0.5% in total.

COVID-19 cases have been on the rise again in parts of the country, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. The onset of winter and the accompanying flu season, as well as the impending holidays, raised concerns that cases will spike further.

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