More NYC kids hit by mystery affliction

The number of New York City kids sickened with a rare Kawasakilike inflammatory disease potentially linked to the coronavirus has jumped to more than 80, Mayor de Blasio said Wednesday as he warned there are still “unanswered questions” about the illness.

“For a long time, thank God, we saw very little impact on our children [in connection with COVID-19],” de Blasio said at his daily coronavirus press briefing. “Now we’re seeing something different.”

The mystery disease, formally known as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or PMIS, has now been detected in at least 82 Big Apple children.

“This number has gone up consistently in recent days from a point where we had literally no acknowledgment of this problem because health-care professionals weren’t seeing it even just a few weeks ago,” the mayor said.

Of the 82 kids, 53 tested positive for the coronavirus or had antibodies for the bug, de Blasio said.

Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday at his daily press conference said the state Department of Health is now investigating the cases of 102 children with symptoms of the illness.

Sixty percent of those children have tested positive for COVID-19, while 40 percent tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, state data showed.

A total of 71 percent of the cases resulted in admission to intensivecare units, 19 percent resulted in intubation, and 43 percent of the patients remain hospitalized, according to the data.

The majority of the patients are between the ages of 5 and 9, but Cuomo said the age range of all the cases is from less than 1 year old to 21.

The disease has already killed a 5-year-old boy in the city, a 7-yearold boy in Westchester and an 18year-old girl in Suffolk.

“We all have to work together hoping and praying there will not be another child lost,” de Blasio said. “We need early detection in this case because we know it can make a huge, huge difference.”