ORLANDO, Fla. — As Florida nears 1 million COVID-19 cases, data shows the spreading virus is impacting not just adults, but children too.

The State of Florida reported 8,555 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, including 72 more deaths. More than 18,000 Floridians have died from the virus.

Data from Florida Department of Health and Orange County Public Schools show a parallel between growing rates of COVID-19 cases among those 17 years of age and younger, both locally and statewide.

Monday saw 5,970 new pediatric COVID-19 cases, compared to a rate of 1,657 new cases on October 5.

Orange County Public Schools’ COVID-19 Dashboard reports 1,144 total confirmed cases among in-person learning students, employees, and vendors.

The data shows a rapid climb in new cases beginning at the end of October. The timing coincides with the transition of the first marking period to the second marking period, and a deadline to when parents had to decide whether to switch between in-person learning and at-home virtual learning.

While school districts have rolled out exhaustive cleaning efforts and procedures to keep contact limited, the question for education and health officials is what impact in-person learning has had on the growing cases.

“I think that’s a great question and one we need more information on,” said Dr. Jenna Wheeler, Pediatric Critical Care Physician at Orlando Health’s Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. “If we look at the fact that our numbers are going up across the community, I think one of the concerns we have in the healthcare community is that we’re not doing as good of a job as we can as a community to try to decrease these numbers.”

Wheeler cautioned that people cannot allow COVID-19 fatigue to get the best of them, and reiterated the importance of mask wearing, washing hands, social distancing, and other efforts.

The data shows parallels in growing cases across Orange County and the state, as well as similar trends among children and adults, Wheeler said.

It’s estimated at the least that more than 1 million children (under the age of 18) in the U.S. are, or have been, infected with COVID-19.

While kids are often reported to have less severe symptoms, Wheeler said that should not give blanket comfort.

“The concern though is there is still a subset of children who go on to develop more severe symptoms and symptoms that require hospitalization,” Wheeler said.

Kids are often believed to transmit COVID-19 at a lesser rate than adults, but Wheeler said it is a risk that remains concerning.

Youth will also be a focal point as pharmaceutical companies get closer to releasing a COVID-19 vaccine.

“We need to make sure we’re paying attention to our pediatric population,” Wheeler said. “We have so much focus on adults getting sick and we need to remember that kids are impacted too. Kids aren’t little adults, kids need their own research, their own data, and we need to be cautious.

"While kids are doing well in general with COVID, there are still some getting really sick and we need to be doing everything we can to protect not only our adult population, but to be protecting our kids as well.”