Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations among children in the US state of Florida have risen just weeks ahead of schools reopening, according to reports.

The increase comes amid intense debate in the US and UK over whether children transmit the disease as easily as adults and, if so, what this means for school reopenings.

According to figures from the Florida Department of Health cited by CNN, new cases among under-17s have increased by 34 per cent and hospitalisations by 23 per cent over eight days.

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Official figures on 16 July showed that 23,170 children aged 17 and under had tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic, and 246 had been hospitalised.

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A week later, on 24 July, the figures had risen, to 31,150 paediatric cases, 303 of which required hospitalisation.

During the same period, one more child died, taking the total toll for residents aged 17 and under from four to five.

Schools have been ordered to reopen next month, but the Florida Education Association has filed a lawsuit, claiming that reopening all schools in August as planned will create an unsafe environment due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Evidence has been mixed on children’s transmission of Covid-19.

In May, a summary of the scientific advice that the Department for Education had received on school openings by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said that there was “low confidence” in the idea that younger children are less susceptible to infection, but also “a high degree of confidence that the severity of disease in children is lower than in adults”.