New York City has been the center of the United States coronavirus efforts for the majority of the pandemic to this point. While many were focused on Washington State as the flashpoint early on, New York quickly became a hot spot and an example of what could go wrong if the nation didn’t act quickly on social distancing guidelines.
While many other states have now started to open up businesses and relax stay-at-home orders, New York is still working hard to lower cases and avoid deaths. But according to a recent report by the New York Times, a new menace has popped up related to the coronavirus and it’s affecting the youngest among us.
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According to the times, the mysterious syndrome has killed at least three young children and infected 73 others. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the details behind the sickness on Saturday after it was first discovered earlier in the week. He also added that many of the children showed no respiratory symptoms that have been common upon arriving at a hospital, only testing positive for COVID-19 or antibodies.
“The illness has taken the lives of three young New Yorkers,” Cuomo said during his briefing. “This is new. This is developing.”
The symptoms resemble what is known as Kawasaki disease, which is a rare childhood illness that causes inflammation of blood vessels but seems to have a wider range of symptoms. As the New York Times explains, the syndrome creates a “toxic-shock” inflammation affecting the skin, eyes, blood vessels and heart, with some patients needing a ventilator while experiencing serious side effects.
To this point, many believed that the coronavirus and COVID-19 didn’t severely affect children and didn’t pressure parents and caregivers to treat them with extra caution. But with this “pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome” and the death of a 5-year-old from the ailment, a whole new danger has arisen.
The Times continues to show that other confirmed cases have popped up in Louisiana, Mississippi, and California. In Europe, at least 50 cases have been confirmed across Britain, France, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. The latter two countries have begun to lift their social distancing guidelines after being hit hard by the virus in the months preceding.
Cuomo called the illness “truly disturbing” and noted that New York will be working with the state’s Genome Center and Rockefeller University to get to the bottom of the illness. Before this week only four children under ten years old had passed away from the coronavirus in New York. Now it paints an unsure picture for safety as states start to open up and send kids back to schools in some areas.
“We were laboring under the impression that young people were not affected by Covid-19, and that was actually good news,” Cuomo said according to the Times. “We still have a lot to learn about this virus.”
