(CMR) Dr. John Lee, Chief Medical Officer for the Cayman Islands has confirmed that a nine-year-old child has been the latest COVID-19 positive case. This result came in yesterday and is the seventh known positive case involving a child in Cayman. The child is symptomatic and continues to exhibit “mild symptoms.”
The revelation was made at the beginning of the afternoon press briefing as Dr. Lee shared that it does cause some concern for the panel. The child presented with symptoms and was tested as a result. This represents the only positive case from yesterday bringing the total number of persons tested in the Cayman Islands to 12,003 with 151 positive cases overall. In the most recent days, there were 850 test results received with 10 positives out of that batch.
The premier stressed his concerns about children being the “single largest vector of the disease” indicating they are more like to pass it along to others than any other group of persons. This is partly explained because of the difficulty in controlling their social distancing, particularly in schools. He shared that he continues to have requests for daycare and early childhood centers to re-open soon. However, he has asked for residents to remain patient as they safely consider and re-evaluate when school and daycares can safely reopen.
The governor also stressed the need to stay the course at this time with a gradual re-opening being the best approach.
A mysterious condition that could be linked to COVID-19 has been reported in hundreds of children in several European countries and North America. The World Health Organization (WHO) put out a scientific brief this past month describing
“clusters of children and adolescents requiring admission to intensive care units with a multisystem inflammatory condition with some features similar to those of Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome.”
Children were displaying overlapping symptoms of severe COVID-19, toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease. The new ailment is being called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C.
The UK, France, Italy, Spain, and the US have all reported cases with some children testing positive for COVID-19 or coronavirus antibodies, meaning they were previously exposed to the virus.
A nine-year-old in France recently died due to complications from cardiac arrest related to the syndrome. The child had tested positive for coronavirus antibodies. At least three children have died in New York from this “new emerging syndrome”.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
