Infant who died from COVID-19 in Kansas is the second child death reported by KDHE
Kansas public health officials reported a second child death from COVID-19 this week.
Kansas Department of Health and Environment data showed a child, who was less than 1 year old, died with COVID-19 as either the underlying cause of death or a significant contributing factor to death.
“KDHE added an infant to the deaths connected to COVID-19 this week,” agency spokesperson Kristi Zears said in an email. “The individual passed away in November. The death certificate was finalized this week, connecting the death to COVID-19, which is the reason the death recently appeared in our totals. Due to patient privacy laws, we are unable to provide further details about the individual.”
The state agency has now reported 5,156 deaths from COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic. Two of those were children. The other child was a 6-year-old, who also died in November, but their death was first reported in February.
While local health departments and medical providers may report COVID-19 deaths directly to the state, the KDHE’s Office of Vital Statistics verifies the cause of death and date of death using death certificates.
The finalization of the infant’s death certificate means the pandemic’s death toll continues to grow for the last third of 2020, a period where COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in Kansas.
The Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit recently found that COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, killing more people than heart disease or cancer. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that Republican lawmakers want further investigation into the statistics “based on unsubstantiated theories that they could have been inflated.”
The legislative audit showed that COVID-19 killed 20 times as many people as influenza and pneumonia during the last four months of the year.
Since the start of the pandemic, Kansas has had 318,106 total cases of COVID-19, with 13,064 cases in the infant to 9-year-old age group. The 11,105 hospitalizations in the state included 107 children in the infant to 9-year-old range. The state has also reported 17 cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C, associated with COVID-19.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, as of June 24, reported that it is uncommon for children to become severely sick from the coronavirus disease.
“At this time, it still appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children,” the organizations reported. “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.”
Nationwide, there have been 386 deaths reported from COVID-19 among people aged zero to 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
None of the COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for children 11 and younger, though trials are underway. Children 12 and older may get the Pfizer vaccine.
“CDC recommends everyone 12 years and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19,” the agency reports. “Widespread vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic.”