Nueces County in Texas has confirmed that 85 infants under the age of one have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic as they urge the public to use greater caution.
Among the children who tested positive was a baby boy under six months old, who died from the infection.
Another was a newborn whose mother also had the virus, according to KIITV.
It is not known how the children are suspected to have become infected and an update on their condition was not given.
Nueces County Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez confirmed that 85 infants under the age of one have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic
Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez confirmed in a press conference Friday that the 85 infants are each younger than one but offered no other details.
‘These babies have not even had their first birthday yet. Please help us to stop the spread of this disease’, Rodriguez said.
She warned the public that they need to stop the spread of coronavirus by staying home except for necessary trips, socially distancing and wearing masks in public.
Rodriguez has also urged people to not take their children to the store or places where they know there’s a greater risk of catching the virus, KIITV reports.
‘These children are not two yet, they are under one,’ Rodriguez said. ‘They cannot wear a mask and so they are unprotected.
‘Some people may say 85 doesn’t sound like a lot compared to 8,000. It’s all how you look at it you know. Are these your children?’
According to USA Today, the number of children under the age of one who have tested positive for coronavirus in the area has now reached one percent of the county’s total cases.
Earlier this month, a baby young than six months old died from coronavirus in the county, Nueces County Medical Examiner Adel Shaker revealed.
‘It’s not anything that anyone can be prepared to face, even with the best plan,’ he said.
KIITV also reported that another child under the age of one who tested positive for coronavirus died at home from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Officials did not know if the death was related.
Nueces County and Corpus Christ has seen a dramatic spike in cases in July
Nueces County, which contains the city Corpus Christi, has 8,176 cases in total, as of Friday.
It had avoided a high number of coronavirus cases when the pandemic first hit the United States but is now experiencing one of the fasted growing outbreaks in the state, according to the Texas Tribune.
In the last two weeks, the beachfront location has added more than 2,000 cases.
‘Nueces County has the fastest growth in new cases on the seven-day average than any other metropolitan county in the state,’ Corpus Christi city manager Peter Zanoni told CNN.
‘You can see the trend line is relatively flat until July, and this is where we have had that huge spike in cases, and this is why it’s turned into a major problem for Nueces County.’
Texas has also emerged as one of the new largest coronavirus U.S. hotspots in recent weeks.
Texas health officials reported more than 10,000 new cases for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday and said 130 more people have died due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
It bring the total number of reported cases in Texas to 317,730 and the number of deaths to 3,865.
The true number of cases is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is stressing that the widespread use of face coverings could avoid another lockdown, which he hasn’t ruled out as cases in the state continue to mount.
Yet local officials are calling on him to allow individual counties to introduce their own lockdowns, as cases in Cameron and Hidalgo counties become so dire that refrigerated trucks have been called in for bodies.
‘Texas is now not where it should be relating to fighting Covid-19. Therefore, your office should take immediate action to rewind the efforts to reopen the state quickly; which came about by ignoring CDC guidelines,’ state representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and Joaquin Castro said in a letter.
‘We need to provide local authority to local counties and cities to do what is in the best interest of their communities.’
