New data from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds that children are contracting COVID-19 at a great rate than at any time since the pandemic began. There have been 1.4 million children with the virus, a number described as “alarming.”

“What’s more alarming, it’s likely an undercount,” says pediatrician Dr. Amna Husain.

Husain says that the undercount is likely in part due to testing discrepancies.

“We also know that children often appear asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and sometimes parents don’t bring them in for a test,” she says.

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There were 112,000 new cases of COVID-19 among children nationwide last week. There have been 6,330 children hospitalized since May, with 133 deaths.

Husain says that the surge was expected as more people moved indoors and relaxed mask wearing and hand washing. She says that she predicts that the numbers will rise.

“The viruses, the bacteria themselves, really thrive in colder, harsher, drier environments and that’s what we see in these months – October, November, December, going forth,” Husain says.

She also says that there could be more cases of MIS-C, a post infection syndrome which is similar to Kawasaki disease.

“It’s the older children, adolescents, teens that could still be at risk, especially from MIS-C we saw in children. That’s the age group at risk,” says Husain.

Doctors say that even though children usually deal with milder symptoms form the virus, parents must enforce mask wearing if the world is going to beat the virus. Husain says that masks could be a part of daily life for the next two years and that parents need to model good mask behavior.