A 7-year-old boy’s cause of death has been revealed after he died unexpectedly while taking a bath in his Georgia home. In an interview with CNN, Chatham County Coroner Bill Wessinger said that the young boy’s cause of death was actually the result of COVID-19.
According to CNN, while taking a bath, the young child experienced a seizure as a result of having a high fever due to coronavirus. However, his family was not aware he had COVID until after he had passed away. The child was tested for the virus during the autopsy.
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The child, who is African American, has been recorded as the youngest person in Georgia to die after contracting COVID-19. Wessigner told CNN that “seizures due to high fevers are very common in children who have the contracted coronavirus.”
The child did not have any known underlying health conditions, CNN reports. His cause of death was determined to have been drowning to due the fever-induced seizure. But toxicology tests are still pending before the report will be finalized.
“Every COVID-19 death we report is tragic, but to lose someone so young is especially heart-breaking,” Dr. Lawton Davis, the Health Director for the Coastal Health District, said in a statement given to CNN. “We know that older individuals and those with underlying conditions are at higher risk of complications, but this is a disease everyone should take seriously.”
Young Georgia Boy Dies After Having a Seizure Tests Positive for COVID
Dr. Davis then offered some advice for the rest of the country. “Please watch out for each other, wear a mask in public, wash your hands often, and stay home if you’re sick. A community-wide crisis demands a community-wide response, and we all must do our part to keep each other safe.”
As of August 14, 5,255,234 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the United States with over 167,000 of those cases resulting in death. In Georgia, there have been 228,668 cases and 4,538 deaths.