New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday said that health officials were investigating around 102 cases reported statewide of children diagnosed with a rare inflammatory syndrome possibly related to COVID-19.
A five-year-old in New York City, a seven-year-old in Westchester County and a teenager in Suffolk County have died of the syndrome, which displays various symptoms including persistent fever, severe abdominal pain, bloodshot eyes and skin rash, Cuomo was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
Seventy-one per cent of the cases have resulted in ICU admission, 19 per cent in intubation and 43 per cent remain hospitalized, according to Cuomo.
While referring to the prior assumption that children were largely not affected by the coronavirus, Cuomo further said, “We must stay alert with this virus because we’re still learning, and what we thought we knew doesn’t always turn out to be true”.
“New York State has been aggressively investigating these new cases and is leading the efforts on this nationwide, and the more we know, the more we’ll communicate,” he added.
On Monday, Cuomo said several regions of upstate have shown progress in taming the coronavirus outbreak are ready to gradually restart economic activity by the end of the week.
Cuomo shut down the entire state March 22 as the New York City area emerged as a global pandemic hot spot, but the outbreak has been less severe in the state’s smaller cities and rural areas.
On Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio at his briefing said that out of the 82 cases, 53 have either tested positive for COVID-19 or had COVID-19 antibodies.
Last week, Cuomo said regions of the state could phase in reopening if they met seven conditions.
COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations need to trend down and there must be enough hospital beds to meet a surge.
Earlier, Cuomo gave no indication that New York City or the surrounding areas are anywhere near being able to reopen.