Six-week-old baby is our youngest victim
A SIX-week-old baby has become the UK’s youngest known victim of coronavirus, it emerged yesterday.
The infant, who is thought to have had an underlying health condition, is the 12th person under the age of 20 to die in England.
New figures from NHS England for hospital fatalities showed the baby was one of 322 further victims, with the oldest aged 103.
Overall, a further 626 deaths took the UK toll to 31,241.
The number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus stands at 211,364, up 4,649 in the 24 hours to yesterday morning.
Of the 22,765 patients who have died in England, more than half were over the age of 80.
Just 0.71 per cent were aged 20-39, eight per cent were aged 40-59 and 39 per cent were aged 60-79.
The baby is believed to have died on May 3 and is likely to have been born around the time Britain went into lockdown.
Children have been largely unaffected by coronavirus, with very few suffering serious illness.
However, doctors have been warned to look out for a mysterious inflammatory syndrome affecting a small number of youngsters.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said symptoms include a persistent fever above 38.5C, abdominal pain, confusion and coughing.
Around 20 children in the UK are thought to have been affected and it is not yet clear whether the condition is linked to Covid-19.
Dr Sanjay Patel, consultant in paediatric infectious diseases at Southampton Children’s Hospital, said: “It’s very important to keep this in perspective. It remains extremely unlikely that a child will become unwell with Covid-19, and it’s even more unlikely that a child will become unwell with this condition.”
Loose Women presenter Christine
Lampard yesterday revealed she and husband Frank rushed their 20-month-old daughter Patricia to hospital last week after she developed a high fever and rash.
Christine, 41, told her fellow Loose Women panellists her mind went to “dark places”.
And she urged viewers to not hesitate in taking their loved ones to hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.
She said: “Our little one – this will echo with other parents, I’m sure – basically woke up with a really high temperature and then your mind goes to some dark places about what
this could be. But to cut a rather long story short we were told by our GP to go straight to A& E – and those were the words I did not want to hear that day.”
Only one parent was allowed to wait with Patricia at Chelsea Hospital, so Frank – the manager of premiership football team Chelsea – returned home.
Christine added: “I went in with her and suddenly felt really alone. You think, oh my gosh this is really terrible.”
The NHS staff were fantastic, she added. “It all turned out to be fine and she’s great.”