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Three children in New York have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in a press briefing Saturday.
Cuomo said health authorities are investigating 73 similar cases reported across the state, where children have become symptoms to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock-like syndrome.
‘The priority for us today is dealing with a new issue that has come up which is truly disturbing and that is the issue that the coronavirus may effect young people. Very young people, that is infants, children in elementary school, ‘he said
‘One of the few rays of good news was young people were not affected [by coronavirus]. We’re not so sure that is the fact anymore.
‘This is the last thing that we need at this time,’ I added.
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a press briefing on Saturday that three children in the state have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to coronavirus
Cuomo had revealed on Friday the death of a 5-year old who was the first child in New York to ‘appear to die’ from the rare inflammatory condition believed to be linked to coronavirus.
Officials at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, where the child – who had tested positive for the virus – was being treated, confirmed the death but didn’t release any other information.
The rising number of cases of the syndrome is now challenging previous beliefs that children are less susceptible to complications from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus as Cuomo revealed that the Centers for Disease Control has asked New York to develop a national criteria that can be used on other states and hospital systems.
Gov. Cuomo said Saturday that health authorities are investigating 73 similar cases reported across the state, where children have exhibited symptoms to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock-like syndrome. Three children in the state have died from the rare inflammatory syndrome
‘These are children who come in and who don’t present the symptoms that we normally find familiar with COVID-19,’ Cuomo told the briefing.
‘It’s not a respiratory illness, they are not in respiratory distress. I think that’s one of the reasons why this is getting discovered so far into the process, it’s more of an inflammation of the blood vessels which can then cause problems with the heart. ‘
He also announced that the New York Department of Health will also be working with the NY Genome Center and the Rockerfeller University to conduct a genome and RNA sequencing study on the reported cases to look for a cause for the illness.
‘These children happen to have the COVID-19 antibodies or be positive for COVID-19 but these were not the symptoms they showed when they came into the hospital system,’ he said.
The news came after Cuomo had announced a more positive outlook for the coronavirus outbreak in the state, revealing that new daily hospitalizations due to coronavirus in New York are at the lowest level since the lockdown began on March 20.
There were just 572 new hospitalizations on Friday but total hospitalizations remain over 7,000.
New daily hospitalizations, intubations and cases continued on their downward trend, Cuomo added, but new deaths remain at a ‘infuriatingly constant’ level.
There were 226 deaths from COVID-19 in New York on Friday, up from 216 a day earlier, and at the same number that was recorded five days ago.
Daily deaths are now less than half the levels recorded two weeks ago but Friday’s increase added to concerns after it was reported that the coronavirus outbreak in the state is slowing at half the speed it spiked.
‘You see it hasn’t been that level since we started back on March 20, March 21, so that is welcome new,’ Cuomo said of the hospitalization numbers.
‘This is not welcome news, this has been heartbreaking every day,’ I’ve added of the new deaths.
‘We could like to see that number dropping at a fare faster rate than it has been dropping.’
New York is the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States with 333,122 cases and 21,271 deaths.
Health authorities are investigating 73 similar cases reported across New York. The disorder can be fatal, attacking multiple organs, impairing heart function and weakening arteries. Pictured: Jayden Hardowar, eight, of New York (left), and Juliet Daly, 12, of Louisiana (right), both landed in the hospital after experiencing the syndrome
Hospitals in New York are now reporting any cases to the state’s health department and the CDC is compiling a patient registry. Pictured: A medical worker transports a patient at Mount Sinai in New York, April 1
Efforts are underway to collect information on the disorder, dubbed ‘Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Potentially Associated with COVID-19.’
On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health issued an alert, calling on hospitals to immediately report any cases to the department.
Cases of rare, life-threatening inflammatory illnesses in children associated with exposure to COVID-19 were first reported in Britain, Italy and Spain.
However, doctors across the US – such as in California, New York and New Jersey – are starting to report clusters of kids with the disorder, which can attack multiple organs, impair heart function and weaken heart arteries.
According to New York’s health department, the majority of kids with the syndrome test positive for either COVID-19 or COVID-19 antibodies.
In a separate case, physicians in Westchester County, north of New York City, reported on Friday the death of a child who had contracted the virus.
According to Dr Michael Gewitz, of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, where the child was being treated, he or she suffered neurological complications from the syndrome. Officials are waiting to see if underlying conditions played a role in the child’s death.
This emerging syndrome, which may occur days to weeks after a COVID-19 illness, reflects the surprising ways that this entirely new coronavirus infects and sickens its human hosts.
Scientists are still trying to determine whether the syndrome is linked with the new coronavirus as not all children have tested positive for the virus.
The syndrome shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which is associated with fever, skin rashes, swelling of glands, and, in the most severe cases, inflammation of arteries of the heart.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and other groups to gather data to better understand and characterize the syndrome, according to an emailed statement.
The aim is to develop a case definition that would allow the CDC to track the cases and advise doctors on how to care for these patients.
Not every child that has developed the condition has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, but enough have for doctors to believe the conditions are linked.
For most children, COVID-19 is mild, and children are far less likely to be hospitalized with the disease than adults, according to the CDC.
‘Children seem to laugh off COVID-19 most of the time,’ said Dr Jane Newburger, a pediatric cardiologist at Harvard’s Boston Children’s Hospital.
‘But rarely, a child will develop this hyper-inflammatory state.’
Newburger said there appears to be a spectrum of illnesses, with some children coming in ‘very sick, even in shock.’ Most have a fever and impaired function in one or more organs.
Some children get sick very fast and need to be in a pediatric intensive care unit, while others can be cared for in a regular hospital ward, she said.
