Coronavirus Watch: What we know about kids and COVID-19 vaccines

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 could get clearance by the middle of next week, and some states are gearing up to receive hundreds of thousands of doses.

Officials in Washington State and Indiana told the Associated Press they are preparing to receive more than 200,000 pediatric doses. Texas health officials say they're expecting to receive 1.3 million doses in the coming weeks.

So what do we know about kids and COVID-19 vaccines? Here are five factors for parents to consider.

It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:

• About 5% of unvaccinated adults say they have left a job because of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
• Vaccinated people can still pass COVID-19 infections from the delta variant on to household members, a study in the U.K. found. Around 25% of vaccinated people who had contact with someone in their household who was positive also tested positive for the delta variant, but around 38% of unvaccinated individuals tested positive after a household contact.
• Three vaccinated tigers at the San Diego Zoo have COVID-19, the first breakthrough infections at the zoo since vaccinating many of its animals, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
• A cheap antidepressant may help reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations and provide a more affordable way to stop severe disease, a study from Brazil found.
• COVID-19 deaths in America have fallen below 10,000 per week, ending a nearly two-month period of higher deaths that killed nearly 100,000 people, a Paste BN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 45.7 million COVID-19 cases and 742,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 245.3 million cases and more than 4.9 million deaths. About 66% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 57% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Among U.S. adults, 80% have received at least one shot, and about 69% are fully vaccinated.

Tracking the pandemic: See the numbers in your area here. See where cases are rising here. See vaccination rates here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines.

– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck