A three-year-old Singaporean girl who tested positive for COVID-19 on 24 March was among the 57 patients who have recovered from the infection, according to the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) daily update on Wednesday (22 April).
Three-year-old Girl With COVID-19 Recovers
The child, identified as Case 582, was warded in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) after testing positive.
Contact tracing revealed that was linked to Cases 418 and 647—both adults—who were believed to be the girl’s parents.
Both adults were imported cases who had returned from the United States. They were discharged 9 April and 6 April respectively.
The child had the longest recovery period of 30 days among recovered children with coronavirus in Singapore. She is among the 51 children aged 16 and below who tested positive for the virus to date.
Cases Involving Children Aged 16 And Below
Among the 51 coronavirus cases involving children to date, eight are aged one and below. Thirteen are aged above one to six, while 22 are aged between seven and 12. Another eight are aged 13 to 16.
26 of the 51 child coronavirus cases have recovered from the virus infection while 25 are still in the hospital.
The fastest recovery among the infected children and adolescents was of a one-year-old boy.
The boy, identified as case 76, was among the group of Singaporeans who were evacuated from Wuhan on 9 February. He was without symptoms when he boarded the flight and was put under quarantine upon landing in Singapore. He tested positive for the virus on 16 February and was discharged two days later.
He was also among the nine imported cases of coronavirus in children in Singapore. 42 of the 51 child cases were local transmissions.
Professor Dale Fisher, group director of medicine at the National University Health System and chairman of the World Health Organisation’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, said that amongst the family clusters in Singapore, there is no evidence that the child is the first person in the family to contract the virus. It is usually parents infecting the children. He said this in a recent interview with The New Paper.
This is true for the most recent cases involving children in Singapore.
Four children, aged between 2 and 13 tested positive for COVID-19 infection between 16 to 18 April. One day later, five children—aged 5, 9, 11, and 12—were among the new confirmed cases of coronavirus report here. All were linked cases of family members who tested positive for the virus before them.
Children Get Coronavirus Too, Says WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier this month stressed its warning that children can also be affected by COVID-19.
“The very notion that COVID-19 only affects older people is factually wrong,” WHO’s European branch head Hans Kluge.
“Age is not the only risk for severe disease,” Kluge insisted.
Total COVID-19 Cases in Singapore Breaks 11,000
The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (23 April) has preliminarily confirmed 1,037 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore. The vast majority of the cases are foreign workers residing in dormitories, while 21 are Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.
This brings the national total number of cases to 11,178. To date, 896 patients discharged.
12 have died due to complication from the virus infection.
MOH is still working through the details of the cases, and share further updates tonight.
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