Five-year-old daughter of Michigan emergency workers dies of coronavirus as residents continue to protest lockdown

‘She was the type of girl that would just run up to you and jump in your arms and hug you’

The five-year-old daugher of a police officer and a firefighter in Michigan has become the youngest known person in the state to have died of coronavirus, according to a report.

Skylar Herbert was diagnosed with coronavirus in March, and later developed a rare complication of the disease and died on Sunday, her family told The Detroit News.

“We decided to take her off the ventilator today because her improvement had stopped, the doctors told us that it was possible she was brain-dead,” her mother, LaVondria Herbert, told the paper.

“We basically just knew she wasn’t coming back to us,” said the 46-year-old, who has been a Detroit police officer for 25 years.

The report said that Skylar’s symptoms started with a persistent headache, and after a trip to the doctor where she tested positive for strep throat, she was sent home with medication.

However, as her condition worsened her mother insisted the family take her to the emergency room.

“We called the doctor back, and they told us that it takes the medication 48 hours to kick in and to give it some time, but because she was crying so bad, I told my husband we needed to take her to emergency because I just didn’t know,” her mother told the outlet.

Skylar was then said to have been tested for the novel coronavirus at the hospital, which came back positive a day later, according to the report.

The five-year-old was reportedly released a day later, but the family said they were forced to return to the emergency room when Skylar’s father, Detroit firefighter Ebbie Herbert, had started to show symptoms.

Skylar had a seizure outside the hospital and after a series of tests it was revealed that she had contracted meningitis, according to The Detroit News.

A spokesman for Beaumont Health confirmed Skylar’s death to the newspaper: “The loss of a child, at any time, under any circumstances, is a tragedy. We are heartbroken that Covid-19 has taken the life of a child. We extend our deepest sympathy to Skylar’s family and all others who have lost a loved one to this virus.”

The family said they were unsure where their only child contracted the virus, stating that they had been in lockdown in their house “for weeks.” Her father’s test was said to have come back inconclusive.

Her death comes as thousands of conservative demonstrators poured into Michigan’s capital to protest against the governor’s stay-at-home coronavirus order.

The protest, which was dubbed “Operation Gridlock”, organised by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, claims the governor has become too oppressive in her orders against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Detroit News said that prior to Skylar’s death the youngest person on record to die with Covid-19 in the state was 20 years old, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

“She was the type of girl that would just run up to you and jump in your arms and hug you,“ Ms Herbert said of her daughter. ”It didn’t matter what she was doing, she would stop what she was doing and tell me she loved me like 20 times a day.“