Twelve-year-old Emma was diagnosed with pneumonia and later tested positive for coronavirus
Although at the moment there were no cases of children infected by coronavirus, an exception has just been presented in the United States, since a 12-year-old girl is connected to an artificial respirator because of the coronavirus.
According to what the girl’s cousin told CNN, she is ‘fighting for her life’ in an Atlanta hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
Justin Anthony mentioned that Emma was diagnosed with pneumonia on March 15 and tested positive for coronavirus on Friday night.
On Saturday she was hooked up to a ventilator and her condition is currently stable. Her cousin also mentioned that Emma had no pre-existing conditions and how she contracted the virus is still unknown.
For its part, the Children’s Healthacare hospital in Atlanta-Scottish Rite confirmed that a current patient tested positive for Covid-19, although it did not want to give further details.
Jessica Pope, a spokeswoman for the hospital, spoke about it.
The patient remains in isolation and we have used appropriate precautions consistently. Additional details will not be released due to patient privacy laws
Several health experts have said that the elderly and people with underlying health problems are at higher risk of death from the new coronavirus. Children contract and spread the virus, but they usually develop mild cases of the disease.
Of the almost 45,000 confirmed cases in China, until February 11, only the death of one person under 20 years old was reported, according to what was said by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and there were no deaths among children under 10 years old.
On the other hand, of the 731 confirmed and 1,412 suspected cases of Covid-19 in children in China, only one 14-year-old boy lost his life. In addition, nearly 6% of cases in children were severe, compared with 18.5% of adults who experienced severe symptoms, a study found to be published in June in the scientific journal Pediatrics.
It was mentioned that young adults do better than the elderly, but they are not immune to the virus either. The report issued by the CDC of the United States shows that younger people account for a large part of hospitalizations. Up to 20% of people hospitalized with coronavirus in the United States are young adults between the ages of 20 and 44.