About 100 children are now suffering from a potentially deadly inflammation of the blood vessels believed to be related to the Coronavirus disease, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced.
According to Cuomo, three children a five-year-old boy, a seven-year-old boy and 18-year-old girl, died after battling symptoms similar to those caused by Kawasaki disease.
Kawasaki disease, a rare illness with just 20,000 cases recorded annually in the US, can be managed with medications like aspirin and medical professionals believe the disease is linked to Coronavirus.
It’s too early to tell how big a concern the disease might become, but the illness came up during a Senate hearing Tuesday when Dr Anthony Fauci of the White House coronavirus task force warned against rushing to reopen schools in the fall. He referenced “children presenting with COVID-19 who actually have a very strange inflammatory syndrome, very similar to Kawasaki syndrome.
“I think we better be careful if we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects (of the virus),’’ Fauci said
Of the 100 children diagnosed, 52 live in New York City, with 10 further suspected cases awaiting results. Out of the 62 possible or confirmed cases, 25 youngsters have tested positive for Covid-19. while another 22 had antibodies for Covid-19, indicating that they’ve previously had coronavirus and cleared it from their bodies.
Governor Andrew Cuomo discussing the new infections, said: ‘We have about 100 cases of an inflammatory disease in young children that seems to be created by the COVID virus. this is something that’s just starting…the symptoms of the children are analyzed to the Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome.
‘It’s an inflammation of the blood vessels and can affect the heart..if we have this issue in New York we probably have it in other states. These children don’t present the usual COVID symptoms, they’re not respiratory symptoms.’
