- Less than 250 children died of coronavirus.
- More than three quarters of deaths occurred in children of color.
- Overall, children account for about 13% of coronavirus cases in the United States.
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Children represent a small percentage of the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, but the majority of adolescents who have died of the virus so far have been children of color.
On February 11, 241 children died of COVID-19, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 75% of deaths from COVID-19 among children were children of color.
The CDC study looked at 121 child deaths between February and July 2020 and found that 45% were Hispanic, 29% were black, and 4% were non-Hispanic American Indians or Alaskan natives.
The mortality rate among black children is higher than the mortality rate of black adults compared to their white counterparts. Adults of color are twice as likely to die from coronavirus.
The NPR reported that, similar to adults, underlying conditions like asthma, obesity and heart problems are a risk factor for children to develop serious illnesses.
In all, there were more than 3 million cases of coronavirus among children, about 13% of the total number of cases in the United States.
However, while many children who died of coronavirus complications end up in the hospital, many died at home or in the emergency room, NPR reported.
Tagan, 5, fell ill in October and her mother, Lastassija White, took her to the hospital after she woke up throwing up in the middle of the night, The Washington Post reported. The doctors at Northwest Texas Healthcare System hospital sent her home and told her to isolate herself after she tested positive for coronavirus. That night, White found her unanswered.
Kimora “Kimmie” Lynum was 9 years old when she died of COVID-19 and no one knew she had the virus until after her death, the Post reported.
Lynum told her mother that she had a stomachache on a July day and after her temperature rose to 103, she was rushed to the hospital, where doctors did not test her for the coronavirus and sent her home. She seemed to be doing better and playing, but six days later she took a nap and was later found to be unanswered.
Several factors, including underlying conditions and multisystem inflammatory syndrome – a very rare post-inflammatory condition that affects children weeks after a coronavirus infection – can lead to death, the Post reported.
Another factor was simply the lack of awareness at the beginning of the pandemic that children can be severely affected by the virus. Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan, told NPR: “for a long time, it was believed that children did not die from it.”