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Westchester County Executive George Latimer said that 11 children have been treated for pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, including the child, a boy, who died.
Neither the boy's age nor place of residence were released.
Statewide, there have been 73 reported cases of the syndrome in New York, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday, May 8.
According to health officials, “while rare, we are seeing evidence that COVID-19 can cause severe illness in children.”
The symptoms officials have been seeing are similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome.
“What we’ve seen is that this affects young children, and it may be associated with the COVID outbreak,” Latimer said. “We saw similar signs in Europe weeks ago that this disease was manifesting itself in children, and now in New York we’re seeing that there’s been cases of it.”
Westchester County Health Commissioner Sherlita Amler added that “it’s too early to tell if its a post-viral syndrome related to COVID-19, so until those questions are answered, it’s important to be aware of the syndrome and what to look for.”
Parents should seek immediate care if a child has:
- A prolonged fever (more than five days);
- Difficulty feeding (infants) or is too sick to drink fluids;
- Severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, or vomiting;
- Change in skin color - becoming pale, patchy, and/or blue;
- Trouble breathing or is breathing very quickly;
- Racing heart or chest pain;
- Decreased amount or frequency of urine;
- Lethargy, irritability, or confusion.
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