This archive report was first published on 8 May 2020.
On May 7, 2020, a child died in a Manhattan hospital from a rare syndrome linked to the coronavirus, which causes life-threatening inflammation in critical organs and blood vessels of children.
The Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, where the child was being treated, did not release any further information about the victim.
“While it is concerning that children are affected, we must emphasize that based on what we know thus far, it appears to be a very rare condition,” said Lucia Lee, a spokeswoman for the Mount Sinai Health System.
On May 8, 2020, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that a 5-year-old had died, possibly from the syndrome, and that the death was under investigation.
According to Cuomo, there had been 73 reported cases of children in the New York area who had been afflicted with the illness, which doctors have labeled “pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome.”
“This would be really painful news and would open up an entirely different chapter,” Cuomo said, “because I can’t tell you how many people I spoke to who took peace and solace in the fact that children were not getting infected.”
State health officials said most of the children who were thought to have the syndrome had also tested positive for the coronavirus or for antibodies to it.
On May 4, 2020, the New York City Department of Health issued a bulletin, asking doctors to report any cases of the syndrome.
The symptoms of the syndrome appear to target the heart and coronary arteries of children infected with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
