US children increasingly affected by coronavirus After preying heavily on the elderly in the spring, the coronavirus is increasingly infecting American children and teens, AP reports, in a trend authorities say appears fuelled by school reopenings and the resumption of sports, playdates and other activities. Children of all ages now make up 10% of all US cases, up from 2% in April, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported Tuesday. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the incidence of Covid-19 in school-age children began rising in early September as many youngsters returned to their classrooms. About two times more teens were infected than younger children, the CDC report said. Most infected children have mild cases; hospitalizations and death rates are much lower than in adults. Dr. Sally Goza, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the rising numbers are a big concern and underscore the importance of masks, hand-washing, social distancing and other precautions. “While children generally don’t get as sick with the coronavirus as adults, they are not immune and there is much to learn about how easily they can transmit it to others,” she said in a statement. The CDC report did not indicate where or how the children became infected. Public health experts say the uptick probably reflects increasing spread of the virus in the larger community. While many districts require masks and other precautions, some spread in schools is thought to be occurring, too. But experts also say many school-age children who are getting sick may not be getting infected in classrooms. “Just as cases in college students have been linked to partying and bars, school children may be contracting the virus at playdates, sleepovers, sports and other activities where precautions aren’t being taken,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health specialist at George Washington University. A commonly used arthritis drug is to be trialled with care home residents who have Covid, after it was observed that those taking it for their joint pains were less likely to end up in hospital with the virus. Older people in care homes, who often have some degree of dementia, tend not to do well in hospital, where they become more confused and may pick up infections. The trial will break new ground by giving the drug to people at care homes, where they can be supervised and monitored afterwards by doctors and nurses. The drug, adalimumab, has been in use for 20 years and there are cheap versions available all over the world. It is an anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug, which is used to reduce inflammation in arthritis and bowel disease. In the severe stages of Covid-19, patients can suffer from a “cytokine storm” – an overreaction of the body’s immune system, causing an inflammatory response: More on that study in India: The blood tests were collected from just over 29,000 people in 21 states or territories between mid-August and mid-September. The new figures are a sharp jump from the first sero-survey results, which the ICMR said showed that around 0.73 percent of adults in India - about six million people - were infected by May. Scientists warn, however, that antibody tests should be treated with caution because they also pick up exposure to other coronaviruses, not just the one that causes Covid-19, the disease which has killed more than 1 million people worldwide since it emerged late last year. India - which has one of the world’s most poorly funded healthcare systems - has gradually lifted a strict lockdown imposed in late March even as infections steadily climb, to revive its battered economy. 60m Indians may have contracted Covid More than 60 million people in India - 10 times the official figure - could have contracted the novel coronavirus, the country’s lead pandemic agency said Tuesday, citing a nationwide study measuring antibodies. According to official data India, home to 1.3 billion people, is the world’s second most infected nation, with more than 6.1 million cases, just behind the United States. But the real figure could be much higher, according to the latest serological survey - a study testing blood for certain antibodies to estimate the proportion of a population that has fought off the virus, AFP reports. “The main conclusions from this sero-survey are that one in 15 individuals aged more than 10 have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by August,” Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director-general Balram Bhargava said at a health ministry press conference. Bhargava said evidence of virus exposure was more prevalent among people tested in urban slums (15.6%) and non-slum urban areas (8.2%), than in rural areas, where 4.4% of those surveyed had antibodies. Summary Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from the next few hours – we’ll include coronavirus-related parts of the US presidential debate, too. As always, I’m also to be found on Twitter @helenrsullivan or email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com. More than 60 million people in India could have contracted Covid-19, the country’s lead pandemic agency said, citing a nationwide study measuring antibodies. The study found that the number of Indians to have had the disease may be 10 times higher than the official figure of 6.1 million. Meanwhile the UK reported 7,143 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, the highest single figure to date, and 71 deaths, the biggest toll since July, according to the government’s dashboard. Disney will lay off roughly 28,000 employees in its theme parks division, the company said, as its resorts struggle with limited attendance amid the coronavirus pandemic. Disney has reopened all of its parks except California’s Disneyland. About two-thirds of the laid-off employees are part-time workers, the company said in a statement. The World Bank has announced plans for a $12bn (£9.3bn) initiative that will allow poor countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to treat up to 2 billion people as soon as effective drugs become available. In an attempt to ensure that low-income countries are not frozen out by wealthy nations, the organisation is asking its key rich-nation shareholders to back a scheme that will disburse cash over the next 12 to 18 months. The global coronavirus death toll passed one million. The world has suffered the loss of more than one million people in just nine months since the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, China, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, who rely on official government data.The current total is: 1,003,337. The true toll is likely to be higher due to time lags, differing testing rates and definitions (of what constitutes a coronavirus-related death, for example) and suspected underreporting in some countries. The director-general of the World Health Organisation described the one millionth death as a “difficult moment for the world”. Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus urged urged countries to “bridge national boundaries” to fight back against the virus and said it was never too late to turn the tide on the disease. Germany is heading for nearly 20,000 new infections a day unless urgent action is taken, its chancellor Angela Merkel said. Merkel said she wanted to avoid another nationwide lockdown “at all costs” but that measures were necessary on a state-by-state basis. Restrictions will include a cap on the number of people at parties and family gatherings in areas worst affected by the coronavirus. The Netherlands is in grip of a fast-growing second wave of coronavirus. The country reported 3,011 new cases on Tuesday, a daily record, as it imposed new measures to combat a resurgence of infections.