City says child under 10 was youngest virus death

A Houston girl under age 10 died of COVID-19 last year, the Houston Health Department confirmed Wednesday.

The girl, who health officials said had underlying health conditions, died at a Houston hospital in midOctober.

Scientists were unable to determine whether she was infected with the delta variant, which has sickened thousands of Texas children.

The Houston Health Department did not provide the girl’s age, but said she was the first fatality in a child under the age of 10.

“This tragic COVID-19 related death serves as a reminder that we must get vaccinated, mask up, and get tested to protect our community during the omicron surge, especially children too young to get vaccinated,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement.

The virus has infected and killed a disproportionate number of people from Black and Latino communities, city data show. Health officials said the young girl was Black.

While COVID has killed nearly 4,000 Houston residents since the pandemic began in 2020, less than 5 percent of those deaths occurred in people 39 and under.

It was unclear Wednesday whether medical examiners had performed an autopsy in the three months since the girl’s death.

“There is no standard length of time for reporting COVID deaths,” Scott Packard, a spokesman for the Houston Health Department, said in an email. “It’s a complex process requiring several investigative steps that may include obtaining lab results, death certificate, locating and interviewing the next of kin, interviewing the patient’s physician, medical records review, and securing other relevant information such as autopsy results if one is conducted.”