First US infant death linked to COVID-19 reported in Illinois

News
By Jeanna Bryner
published

Coronavirus particles, COVID-19
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The first infant death related to COVID-19 in the United States has been reported in the Chicago area today (March 28). 

"There has never before been a death associated with COVID-19 in an infant," said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). "A full investigation is underway to determine the cause of death. We must do everything we can to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. If not to protect ourselves, but to protect those around us."

The age of the infant, who lived in Cook County, has not been released. This isn't the first death in an infant confirmed to have COVID-19. In China, a 10-month-old with the disease, died 4 weeks after being admitted to the Wuhan Children's Hospital, according to a March 18 report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Related: 13 Coronavirus myths busted by science

Though as the pandemic unfolds, doctors are realizing that no age group is immune to the virus nor to its severe health effects, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus still appears to be more severe in older adults.

More than 85% of COVID-19 deaths in Illinois have been in patients aged 60 and older. And across the U.S., even though 31% of confirmed COVID-19 cases occurred in adults ages 65 and older, this age group represents 45% of hospitalizations, 53% of admissions to the ICU and 80% of the deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 26.

Currently, Illinois has confirmed 3,491 COVID-19 cases and 47 related deaths in 43 counties. The ages of those infected, range from younger than 1 to 99 years, the IDPH reported.

Coronavirus science and news

Editor's note: This article was updated to fix the spelling of Cook County.

Originally published on Live Science. 

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Jeanna Bryner
Jeanna Bryner
Live Science Editor-in-Chief

Jeanna served as editor-in-chief of Live Science. Previously, she was an assistant editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Jeanna has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland, and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jiw71
    "A full investigation is underway to determine the cause of death........."
    But yet the headline stated differently. Why is the media so quick to blame COVID-19 on every death. Could it be that underlying health issues are the MAIN cause of death and that COVID-19 was the "straw that broke the camel's back"?
    Reply
  • Clay10
    this story is 100% false and made up.
    Reply
  • Chief03275
    There were 174 pediatric influenza fatalities and the silence is deafening.
    Reply