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The New York State Department of Health is now investigating approximately 100 cases of what could be a COVID-19-related illness in children under the age of 21.
The symptoms officials have been seeing are similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during his daily COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, May 12, held at the Binghamton University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
"Pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome (PMIS) is a new health condition appearing in children in New York and elsewhere," officials noted. "Some doctors think the condition is related to having COVID-19, but the connection is still not clear."
Since the recent rash of PMIS in New York children, there have been three reported deaths, a 5-year-old boy in New York City, a 7-year-old Westchester boy and an 18-year-old girl in Suffolk County.
“We thought initially that (the virus) didn’t affect children, but now we’re dealing with a disturbing issue,” Cuomo said. “We’ve seen around 100 cases of inflammatory disease in young children that seem to be created by the COVID virus. It’s just starting and New York is leading the investigation.
“It’s a truly disturbing situation, and I know parents around the state and country are worried about it,” he added.
Of the children battling the mysterious respiratory illnesses in children, nearly 60 percent were between the ages of 5 and 14. (See image above.)
Cuomo said that he has directed the Department of Health to tell hospitals to prioritize testing for the COVID-19 virus for any children that demonstrate symptoms of the emerging illness.
“If we have this issue in New York, it’s probably in other states and it hasn’t been diagnosed yet in other states,” he said. “It’s not a matter of (children) showing the typical COVID symptoms, so that’s one of the reasons people haven’t found it yet.
“We’re making real progress, there’s no doubt,” he continued. “But this virus has deceived us every step of the way. We’ve been behind it from the very beginning and it still manages to surprise us.”
Parents have been instructed to 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.
According to the state Department of Health, 1,225,113 New Yorkers have been tested for COVID-19, with 338,485 testing positive, and 1,430 new cases in the past 24 hours. Since the COVID-19 outbreak hit New York in early March, there have been 21,845 deaths tied to the virus.
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