Boy Dies of COVID-19 After Vaccinated Parents Take Him to Hawaii, Recorded as State's First Pediatric Death

COVID-19 primarily affects older adults and those with comorbidities. That is in contrast to other respiratory and viral infections, which are more prevalent in young people.

Children also experience milder symptoms of COVID-19 compared to older counterparts. However, doctors said that parents should still be cautious as kids could still get infected and become carriers of the infection even when they are asymptomatic or only presents mild symptoms.

Hawaii's First Pediatric COVID-19 Death

A recent announcement by Hawaii's Department of Health left many people shocked as a boy between the ages of 0-10 died of COVID-19 after traveling with parents who were both vaccinated. The family was from another state and was reportedly traveling to Hawaii.

According to WIVB.com, the boy had underlying health conditions and developed symptoms of COVID-19 shortly after arriving on the island. He was immediately taken to the hospital but eventually died, Hawaii health officials said.

Governor David Ige has already extended condolences to the family and loved ones of the child. He said that the state would continue to make responsible decisions on COVId-19 restrictions based on scientific evidence to protect the health and safety of the people of Hawaii.

As of now, the death toll in the state of Hawaii has risen to 479, with a total number of 32,041 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started.

Rare Pediatric COVID-19 Death

Children are rarely infected with COVID-19 and mostly present milder symptoms compared to older adults. As of April 22, there are 3.71 million cases of children that had tested positive of the infection since the onset of the pandemic, Q13 Fox reported.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association (AAP) said that there is a slight decrease of cases this week, with 80,00 new child cases, compared to the past couple of weeks when there is an increase of children getting infected with the coronavirus.

But doctors maintain that pediatric deaths due to COVID-19 are rare, with only a total of 0.00% to 0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases that ended in death.

"However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects," the AAP said.

With a year in the pandemic, adults are getting vaccinated, but children are not yet included, although vaccine developers are already working on them.

Researchers worldwide include children in their test trials to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective to use on them.

According to a previous report of Science Times, Pfizer-BioNTech has already given the first jab of the vaccine on 144 participants to see if the vaccine could yield an immune response on kids and to identify the proper dosage for them. Moderna has also recently started similar trials.

Check out more news and information on COVID-19 and Vaccines on Science Times.