Castries – St Lucia has recorded its first paediatric death linked to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic with health authorities Monday confirming that a three-year-old girl had died at the Respiratory Hospital.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sharon Belmar-George said the girl had been admitted to the hospital on January 27 and died February 8.
“The Ministry of Health expresses sincere condolences to the family affected at this time,” Belmar-George said, indicating that the child had come from the Babonneau.
She said that COVID-19 cases below 18 years of age make up 10-13 per cent of the virus cases and that “these cases have been mild and have recovered well”.
“The main risk factors for severe COVID-19 in children include chronic lung disease, neurological disorders, cardiovascular disease, prematurity, and airway abnormality,” Belmar-George said.
As of February 13, the island had diagnosed 22 121 COVID-19 cases with 1,544 active cases. There have been 347 deaths.
Figures released by the Ministry of Health indicated that over the last seven days, the daily infection rate has been 28.1 per 100 000 population per day, a 55 per cent reduction from the previous week, with a 37 per cent average testing positivity rate and a transmission rate of 1.6.
“We continue to note reductions in the public health indicators and the downward trend in the epidemiological curve. We forecast to be within the normal country threshold by the third week towards the end of February 2022,” Belmar-George said. (CMC)
