In Colorado, children make up 26 percent of new COVID-19 cases

With highly transmissible variants spreading across Colorado and more kids taking part in face-to-face activities, children now make up 26.4 percent of all active COVID-19 cases in the state.

Children 18 and under make up 16.57 percent of overall infections in Colorado since the start of the pandemic, ABC News reports; 847 kids have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 13 have died. Dr. Sean O'Leary of the University of Colorado School of Medicine told the network that since children under 16 aren't eligible for any COVID-19 vaccines, "that's a group that is completely prone to getting infected at this point."

Last week, there were 210 active outbreaks at schools in Colorado, the highest number since early December, when there were 211 outbreaks, The Denver Post reports. There are four coronavirus variants in Colorado, and 49 percent of all cases in the state are of the highly-contagious B.1.1.7 variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom.

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Nationwide, more than 3.78 million children have tested positive for COVID-19, about 13.8 percent of all reported cases.