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A Montreal hospital announced that COVID-19 has killed a 2-month-old baby said to be “healthy at birth,” as concerns about the virus rise amid the emergence of the Omicron variant.
The unnamed infant died of complications caused by the virus on Thursday at Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal, Canada, according to a hospital press release. The hospital offered its “most sincere condolences to the parents and the family of the infant,” while adding that no other information about the baby would be released due to confidentiality issues.
Although COVID-19 deaths among healthy babies are very rare, hospital officials stressed that infants remain susceptible to serious complications and urged members of the public to get vaccinated and reduce transmission by maintaining preventive measures like mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing.
Earlier this month, a California couple whose 3-month-old baby boy died of COVID-19 complications in February said that their doctor told them not to worry about their son contracting the virus, erroneously informing them that the virus would not affect him.
Medical experts agree that the virus is less likely to result in serious illness among healthy infants and children but have warned that no groups are invulnerable to complications caused by COVID-19, especially not as the virus continues to mutate and new variants with unpredictable characteristics emerge.
“COVID-19 was initially milder in young children than in adults but the Delta variant has led to an increase in the number and severity of pediatric cases,” Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Pediatrics Professor Dr. Aaron Milstone said in an interview published by the university.
“In rare cases, children infected with the coronavirus can develop a serious lung infection and become very sick with COVID-19, and deaths have occurred,” he added. “That’s why it is important to use precautions and prevent infection in children as well as adults.”
Experts have not yet determined how the emerging Omicron variant affects children and babies, but research is likely to provide answers soon. Pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Jasjit Singh told Children’s Hospital of Orange County that 10 percent of Omicron hospitalizations in the variant’s South African epicenter of Tshwane were in children under 2 years old.
While babies are too young to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other global health authorities have continued to recommend the vaccine for everyone who is eligible, while pointing out that the approved or authorized COVID-19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy.
The unvaccinated British mother of a baby who died of COVID-19 after being born prematurely earlier this year expressed no regrets over not getting vaccinated despite she and her baby contracting the virus, citing unverified “horror stories” while reasoning that she did not want to “take the risk” of getting the vaccine.
Newsweek reached out to Sainte-Justine Hospital for comment.
