Washington, Jan 19 (IANS): About 8.3 million children (12 per cent) have been infected with Covid and 841 have died (less than 0.1 per cent) since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The data showed that children, particularly those under the age group of five are extremely unlikely to die from Covid-19, Daily Mail reported.

It has long been known that children do not suffer from Covid as badly as adults do. Previous studies have found that around half of cases among children are asymptomatic.

Despite this, Covid vaccines in the US have been authorised for children as young as five years old.

According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan, it is not necessary for healthy children to receive Covid boosters.

"The aim is to protect the most vulnerable, to protect those at highest risk of severe disease and dying, those are our elderly population, immunocompromised with underlying conditions and also health care workers," she said during a briefing on Tuesday.

Children aged five to 11 are by far the least vaccinated group in the US, only 28 per cent have received their first dose of the vaccine, and 19 per cent are fully vaccinated, as per CDC data.