6-Year-Old Girl Florida's County's Youngest Coronavirus Victim

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — As Florida school districts prepare to reopen schools, the Florida Department of Health reported the death of a 6-year-old girl in Hillsborough County due to the coronavirus.

The child died Aug. 17. She is the eighth child in Florida to die of coronavirus and the youngest to die in Florida.

DOH

Due to privacy laws, the DOH cannot reveal any details about the child's health. However, the majority of children who have died from the coronavirus had underlying conditions that made them vulnerable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These include diabetes, cancer, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell anemia and a weakened immune system due to an organ transplant.

From March 1 to Aug. 20, 47,489 children age newborn to 17 years old tested positive for the coronavirus. Of those, 593 children were hospitalized.

Since Aug. 7, 7,188 children have tested positive. The largest number (2,550 children) was between the ages of 14 and 17. The next largest group (1,944 children) was between ages of 5 and 10.

In Hillsborough County, 360 children have tested positive for the coronavirus since March 1.

However, the CDC noted that the testing rate for children is far lower than that of adults because most children under age 18 are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

At the same time, said the CDC, children who have severe cases of the coronavirus are more likely to end up in an intensive care unit. The CDC analyzed pediatric hospitalization data from 14 states and found that, although the cumulative rate of coronavirus–associated hospitalizations among children (8.0 per 100,000 population) is low compared with that in adults (164.5 per 100,000 population), one in three hospitalized children was admitted to the ICU.

Reported signs and symptoms upon admission to the hospital differed by age as well. Fever or chills were the most common symptoms (54 percent) in children. Gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea or vomiting, abdominal pain or diarrhea, were reported by 42 percent of hospitalized children overall.

The CDC, however, said parents shouldn't allow these worst-case scenarios to dictate their decision to send their children back to school.

"The best available evidence indicates if children become infected, they are far less likely to suffer severe symptoms," said the CDC. "Death rates among school-aged children are much lower than among adults."

The CDC said parents should weigh the risks of contracting the coronavirus against the harm to a child's social, emotional and behavioral health and academic achievement by not reopening schools.

"The lack of in-person educational options disproportionately harms low-income and minority children and those living with disabilities," said the CDC in a report released July 23. "These students are far less likely to have access to private instruction and care and far more likely to rely on key school-supported resources like food programs, special education services, counseling and after-school programs to meet basic developmental needs."