Texas kindergartner student reportedly dies after contracting coronavirus

‘We are certainly heartbroken,’ says Amarillo’s public health director Casie Stoughton

A Texas kindergarten student has reportedly died of coronavirus complications.

Parents Lastassija White and Quincy Drone told local news outlet KAMR on Thursday their five-year-old daughter, Tagan, died on Friday 30 October after contracting Covid-19.

It is currently unclear whether Tagan, who was a kindergarten student at the Amarillo Independent School District in Amarillo, Texas, suffered from any pre-existing conditions.

Ms White told KAMR that she brought Tagan to the emergency department of their local hospital last week after she became very sleepy and was physically sick.

While at the hospital, Tagan tested positive for Covid-19, but did not have any other symptoms such as a fever or a cough.

Ms White claimed doctors told her that Tagan “would be fine” because coronavirus “doesn't affect kids.”

Tagan’s parents said that after the five-year-old continued to weaken, they called an ambulance. However, Tagan died shortly after.

Mr Drone added: “This doctor told us that our child would be fine, and our child didn’t even make it twenty-four hours. She died within the next fifteen hours.”

During a press conference on Wednesday, Amarillo’s public health director Casie Stoughton expressed her condolences, according to NBC News.

She said that the department is “heartbroken, and our thoughts and prayers go out to that particular family and any family who has lost someone here in our community.”

Ms Stoughton added: “We know that this disease has taken a toll on our community, on our state, on our world and anyone who has lost someone so we are certainly heartbroken.”

Coronavirus deaths in children are rare, as figures from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association show that just 0 to 0.14 percent of all child Covid-19 cases in the US have resulted in death.

The association reported on Monday that more than 61,000 children were diagnosed with coronavirus last week, which was the highest weekly figure since the pandemic began.

At least 853,635 children have been diagnosed with the virus in the US, which represents around 11.1 per cent of all cases in the country.

Although child coronavirus cases are rising across the US, 16 states are yet to report any Covid-19 related deaths in children.

Texas, which has currently recorded at least 996,000 coronavirus cases, is likely to become the first US state to record more than one million cases over the weekend, as 38 states saw an increase in positive tests over the last week.

The US set a new record of 121,888 daily coronavirus cases on Thursday, just one day after the country surpassed more than 100,000 positive tests for the first time.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 9.6 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 234,944.